Directors of the Womad festival have announced it will be moving to a new location next year, after seventeen years at the Rivermead site in Reading. Organisers say the festival has outgrown that site, but are yet to confirm where they plan to move the internationally focused music fest next year.
Commenting on the news, David Sutton, leader of Reading Council, told reporters: "My first feelings once the decision was finalised, were of great sadness, something like the sadness parents feel when their children leave home perhaps. But we have to accept that there are commercial pressures on Womad and also, simply, things move on."
Meanwhile, Womad director Thomas Broonan thanked the town for being its host for the last 17 years: "We are intensely proud of our achievement together in Reading and all that Womad has achieved in this context has been with the support and endorsement of both the council and the people of Reading since 1990."