'Amazing' to reach 40 years says WOMAD founder

WOMAD co-founder Peter Gabriel has taken to the stage at the festival with the singer Angelique Kidjo to celebrate its 40th anniversary.

Gabriel said Kidjo, who is from Benin, West Africa, coaxed him on to the main stage to perform Mama Africa with her.

He also called on the government to make sure foreign artists booked for the festival could get visas to come to Britain after several were refused.

A government spokesman said it is committed to supporting musicians.

He said: "Musicians, entertainers, artists and their technical staff from non-visa national countries, such as EU Member States and the US, do not require a visa to perform in the UK, and the UK does not have work-permits.

"We are committed to supporting our brilliant musicians to adapt to the new arrangements following the UK's exit from the European Union. "

Gabriel told the BBC that he had fun joining Kidjo on stage on Friday night.

"I was worried that was going to happen because Angelique is someone you can't say no to. But I had a lot of fun."

Of the festival's 40th anniversary, he said: "It's amazing. I don't think we had any sense (back in 1982) of what it might grow into and keep going this long.

"Glastonbury and us are the old grandparents of the festival business now."

The first festival in 1982 made a big loss and its debts had to be repaid by Gabriel's old group, Genesis, getting back together to play a benefit concert.

Gabriel said at the time he did not think "beyond surviving the next year".

Some artists have been unable to perform this year after they were refused UK visas.

"It's damaging to the economy as well as to the cultural life of the country," said Gabriel.

"We have absurd situations where with a group of five, three of them will get visas and two won't.

"The sense of isolationism and populism and the way social media is manipulating polarisation to make profit, it's very dangerous.

"I think the government should understand the importance of free-flowing culture.

"I am a passionate European and a passionate globalist.

"We need to melt those barriers and borders as fast as we can," he added.

Asked whether a new prime minister would change the situation, he said: "I'm not especially hopeful, but you never know."

He added that a lot of MPs from all sides supported WOMAD.

Gabriel's highlights of the festival so far have been the British performance poet Kae Tempest, BCUC from South Africa and Angelique Kidjo.

"They were the things that blew me away," he said.

He added that he was looking forward to seeing the French/Moroccan group Bab L'Bluz, Folknery from Ukraine, America's Flaming Lips and Gilberto Gil from Brazil.

He is currently working on a new album, which will be out in 2023, but would only say that he was whittling down the number of songs he had written for it from 17 to 13.

Follow BBC West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: [email protected]