'Tougher to survive' as a music festival in the UK

The large number of music festivals held in the UK makes the industry "tougher to survive" here than in other countries, one festival founder has said.

World of Music, Arts and Dance Festival (WOMAD), which attracts acts from across the globe, was founded by former Genesis frontman Peter Gabriel and was first held in Somerset in 1982. This year it was held at Neston Park in Wiltshire.

"We've always had some enthusiastic supporters, but keeping the budget under control is never easy," Gabriel told the BBC.

"I think in the festival business in the UK... we've a lot more festivals than any country, I think per head of population, so it is tougher to survive."

Last month WOMAD had to cancel plans to hold a festival in Glasgow for the first time.

Organisers said a competitive market combined with low ticket sales meant it was no longer viable to bring the music event to Scotland.

This year's festival in Wiltshire welcomed over 460 performers from 38 countries.

Colombian music duo Ácido Pantera, Swedish-Danish ensemble Bitoi and singer Clara Serra López were all part of the line-up.

Chris Smith, festival director, said: "We're one of the few independent festivals left of any scale in the country. We took the year out to completely reset and go to the blank canvas because we thought that's what we needed to maintain our place - and it's worked."

Gabriel said: "The last two WOMADS lost a fair bit of money, so this is a gamble again to see if we can survive. But it seems to be working well."

The festival has moved to its new site from Charlton Park, near Malmesbury, where it had been held since 2007, and for the first time, the main stage was powered by renewable energy stored in huge batteries.

Gabriel said: "I really like it [Neston Park]. I'm a tree man, and I love the big old trees around the place; they centre me."

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