Backstage: WOMAD

Available for over a year

Nikki Bedi is backstage at WOMAD, the UK's biggest outdoor festival of international music, dance, food and escapism. Over a long weekend, a hundred bands play live on five different stages in the grounds of an English country house, with thirty thousand people camping in the surrounding fields. In between dancing on the grass, Nikki encounters a water ballet and a giant communal hammock, and meets the performing musicians. Ladama, are four women from Venezuela, Columbia, Brazil and the U.S.A, with Latin rhythms and an empowering message for women. Ugandan born Seby Ntege, now based in the UK, leads a multi-national band and plays the West African kora like a rock guitar, standing up and grooving to the music. And Polish band Hanba, dressed in flat caps and waistcoats, reveal why they have created a world where brassy punk music began in 1930's Krakow. Photo shows a field at WOMAD 2018 (c) C Brandon/Redferns - Getty Images