Ampco installs sound for WOMAD

As the World of Music, Arts and Dance (WOMAD) prepares to celebrate the 25th anniversary of its first UK festival, with co-founder Peter Gabriel among this year's headliners, its long-standing audio supplier Ampco Pro Rent is gearing up to provide the sound for all nine venues at WOMAD's new UK home.

This year's UK WOMAD Festival, (27-29 July), will be the first to be staged in the picturesque setting of Charlton Park, near Malmesbury in Wiltshire, and marks the first UK festival for WOMAD's new events director Chris Smith.

Peter Gabriel will headline the Friday night lineup as part of the anniversary celebrations. Other artists on the all-star bill include Baba Maal, Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba, Bill Cobham, Chota Divana, Clube Do Balanço, Daara J, Kronos Quartet, Mariza, Steel Pulse and Tools & The Maytals.

Ampco Pro Rent, founder member of the Synco Europe Network, has provided sound for WOMAD festivals worldwide for over a decade and the expertise of its team, led by production manager Dieter van Denzel, has become an intrinsic part of the 'WOMAD experience' for the event's global performers.

The various venues are served by Synco by Martin Audio line array systems, Renkus-Heinz STS systems, exclusive Synco stage monitor systems and an array of consoles headed by the Midas Heritage series.

WOMAD artistic director Thomas Brooman says: "We believe our festival audience will be as enthusiastic about the new, much more rural location as we are, even though there's a huge technical challenge for us to make a festival of this size work completely successfully in a new place. It's a momentous step after 25 years but we're going forward on this new road with Ampco in the absolute belief that in five years' time and more we'll still be working together. This is a dynamic partnership, not just a contract for the supply of audio systems."