There’s nothing like a true celebration of the desire to explore what it means to be human. This exploration can take many forms. It can be as complex as a PhD thesis dissecting every tiny avenue of the “Human Condition” or it can be as simple as being open to others, to their views, to their traditions and to them as fellow humans - fellow beings, yet often wonderfully different to oneself. 
Of all the expressions of such a celebration, the WOMAD festival is one of the best. Why? Because it is the intent of the people attending, both the performers and the audience to share in the wonderful diversity and variety of which we Humans are capable and to enjoy that diversity, learning more about ourselves in the process. 
This is the WOMAD experience.

The acronym “WOMAD” stands for World Of Music Arts and Dance and it is a coming together of un-like minded people, in that they are culturally very different, but like-minded, in that their intention is to celebrate and not condemn diversity. For some time I have been fortunate enough to be a part of this great festival as a presenter on Radio WOMAD, the official festival radio station. The idea behind Radio WOMAD came from Steve Satan (stage name), the station’s boss. Originally he felt that such a huge venue would benefit from it’s own on-site radio station which, he felt, could provide all the necessary information which someone attending the festival might need. Of particular value of course would be up to the minute reports on traffic into and out of the festival, first aid advice and all the myriad of other things which could make the whole experience better. 
However, as Steve explained to me recently, the station grew and evolved rapidly to become what is now a full blown 24 hour a day service covering not only the festival site itself but also the surrounding villages on fm, and streamed world wide on the net. Radio WOMAD is much more than a radio version of a public address system however. It has all the facilities usually associated with full time community stations complete with it’s own purpose built studios, outside broadcasting facilities (where a group of professional freelance journalists collect material for features broadcast throughout the festival period) and even its own sound stage used by many of the artists appearing at the festival to perform live on air, especially for Radio WOMAD listeners. It is also extremely popular.

One of the most impressive aspects of Radio WOMAD is that, for most of the year, it doesn’t actually exist in any physical form. There is no studio, no sound stage and only white noise on 87.7MHz, the FM frequency usually allocated to the station. One of the most incredible things about having our own sound stage of course is that Radio Womad actually gets unique performances from many of the big name artists quite separate from their festival set and quite often we get them before they do their big stage performance. It also means that we get to have on air chats both before and after they have performed for us so in a very real sense the festival comes to us!

The first time I was invited to be part of the team I went along early to help with some of the leg work and it was incredible to watch the station literally form before my eyes. 

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The Radio WOMAD Experience :

So what is it like to be a presenter on Radio WOMAD? Well I can tell you that it’s not like any radio work I’ve done before. The music is different! On “normal” stations one will probably know most of the tunes one plays, or all in the case of The Album Zone since we presenters pick ‘em. 
At WOMAD the enormous number and range of artists meant that on my first visit I only had a scant knowledge of a very small number.  Add to this the fact that this is World Music, ie music from around the world and I soon realised that I’d be lucky if I even knew how to pronounce some of the names properly or even if I was dealing with a band or solo performer. “If you don’t know, just say it loudly and with authority” was the advice originally given to me by a fellow presenter! Another terror which fortunately doesn’t happen much these days was the “impromptu” interview. I would be in the middle of a track and there would be a knock on the studio door. “James - you are interviewing these guys at the end of this track”. “Who are they?” I would ask. “They are .....” there would follow a name which I couldn’t quite make out and then “...... from .....” - a place I had never heard of. There would be no time to do a quick internet search! A couple of minutes later I’d be face to face in the studio with a group or a solo artist who for all I knew could be the top grossing act in their own country but more often than not I hadn’t a clue who they were. 
I rapidly developed a strategy. I would put on a long track, sit them down and say something like “look, this interview is about YOU. It’s your space so lets use it to tell people the stuff they don’t already know about you. Of course introduce yourself” (that got round the worst problem) but you tell me what you want me to ask you. What do YOU want people to hear about?” - then I’d scribble down their questions. Usually this worked perfectly and quite often it meant that I’d get snippets of very recent events in their careers which I could not have found out about through the usual channels even if I’d had time to do the research! 
These days it’s much easier, partly because I read the programme and check the WOMAD website beforehand (rather obvious but I didn’t do it back then) and partly because I’m more familiar with World Music anyway. One of the greatest delights about Radio WOMAD is the enthusiasm of the people. Not just those involved with the station and not just the artists who appear, but those who take the time to contact us. 
At the end of the recent broadcast, reading back through the texts, emails, Facebook mentions and Tweets received during our broadcast, I was struck by how genuinely excited everyone was to be part of this. True it was a temporary community lasting only the length of the festival and true also that it was an unusual time for all of us.

When we drove out of the festival site, once again we would be engulfed in “real life” dealing with bills, jobs and “the grind”. However, for that brief time everyone came together and remembered that to be Human is to have infinite possibilities. 

In our small way that too is the ethos of The Album Zone. No rules, no format, just a great experience.