Great Western Coffee Shop

From the Melksham News (https://melkshamnews.com/womad-wins-permission-to-hold-festival-near-atworth/)


and noting ...


Neston Park is just under 4 miles (just under 90 minutes to walk) from the nearest railway station, which is Melksham, contrary to the online information that says it's Chippenham which is about 7 miles away.

(https://www.wellho.info/pix/womadmkm26.jpg)

Although the title is "Nearest Station", it does say "Chippenham is the primary train station for the festival", perhaps based on the free shuttle bus that will run from there (which makes sense given the relatively infrequency of the Melksham train service). But it would be helpful to also state what the actual nearest station is.

From Kemble?  :o

That's about 20 miles!  ;)

I think someone copied last year's message. WOMAD was at Malmesbury for many years, having moved from Reading back in the noughties.

As an aside, these festivals don't seem particularly good at picking "sustainable" locations, from a transport of view. See also Glasto!

To help me with local planning stuff, does anyone have any data about what proportion of people headed for a festival go by train (and by bus, by car, by other means) ... if the 15,000 adult tickets on sale are all sold, how many rail passengers into the area should be planned for?  1,000, 10,000, or somewhere between??

Does anyone know where Womad will actually be at Neston Park, there is the bit nearer the house, but the whole estate goes lot further south.

There has been a military vehicles show at Neston Park, but it is actually in fields nearer South Wraxall (and Bradford on Avon station is nearer that site).

Does seem to mention various camping fields, so presumably is grassed pasture and not fields with crops that would be used

It describes Atworth as the nearest village ... I am in "learning" mode at the moment, though, as regards the travel and transport ...

The description/pictures/video on the WOMAD website
https://womad.co.uk/new-2026-site/

appear to imply it's based around the mansion, just outside Atworth as per Graham's original post:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/mg31mKiGK52kf62W7

Difficult to answer that question, without knowing how much effort the organisers are putting in to helping people attend. Gren Coaches for example from major cities direct to site would attract many; more coaches from many different towns & cities attract even more out of their cars. An expensive parking ticket with free camping if coming by public transport is another example.

Check their licence conditions as its quite often a condition that they put on/encourage public transport over cars. But otherwise keep an eye on their website for the amount of encouragement. I suspect that there are more than 15,000 adult tickets in a 30,000 capacity - certainly at most festivals.

https://womad.co.uk/

Starts on Thursday, although that's not a full day. The FAQs https://womad.co.uk/festival-information-faqs/ include "site map and getting here", with what3words locations for the entrances along the A365 Bath road on the Bath/Box side of Atworth. The main entrance is here:
https://what3words.com/addicted.disco.laughs

It's less than 2 miles from us, so it might be audible with the wind in the right(?) direction. Or as a 'local resident' I could purchase a 4 day ticket - reduced from £275 to £187 :o It would certainly be a chance to listen to something new - I don't recognise any of the names in the lineup...

https://womad.co.uk/lineup-2026/

(apart from Barrington Levy, although not sure why)

Faresaver are running a shuttle bus between the site and Chippenham station, timetabled as 30 mins; £10 for a single:
https://womad.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/WOMAD-W1-2026-PUBLIC.pdf

...or alight at Bath and only pay £3 for the regular 27x bus. Although you've got to walk from the station to the (temporary) Guildhall bus stop, and from the Atworth Neston Park Lodge bus stop to the site; both are less than half a mile I think.

Perhaps rather belatedly, I've now added this topic to the Coffee Shop forum calendar.

CfN.  ::)

It wouldn't take many festival-goers and their camping gear to fill the 27X, which wouldn't go down well with its normal users.

One of our (MTUG - Kev our treasurer) members is going to walk across to Melksham Station for train arrivals / redirect people who arrive un-encouraged at the nearest railway station to WOMAD.  We know it would not cope, nor would the local taxi / private hire / even bus operators is we made a song and dance about being closest.   But at about 4 miles from the site, Melksham is the closest, and the only one I would walk. We regularly get arrivals who have found Melksham  Station based on it being closest to their final destination (from online research) and stand outside the station looking lost asking "where are the taxis" ...

It's a real "shout" that Information at the Station" is needed ... though failure to gain CCIF funding has allowed that project to revert to proper timing; you will hear more in the late summer and autumn rather than us rising for an "al done" by 31st Match 2027.   New timescale makes more sense, not us forcing ourselves into out funder's stipulation.

Bus fares away from scheduled local services are interesting; the shuttle to the festival is not the only fare here in Wiltshire to be substantially higher than the £3 cap.  The £3 capped fares are regular services and allow the costs to be spread over a daily year round operation, where a festival weekend is a short, sharp and awkward series of journeys for bus operators. 

Yes - by all means people can catch the 271/2/3 and I expect a few will ... but it would be irresponsible marketing on our part to promote the option widely for the process out-of-area.

(Just to clarify, I wasn't suggesting that the Bath/27x option should be promoted as a means of getting to the site; just an observation really.)

Perhaps it would have been worth suggesting to the organisers, or one of the local operators that a shuttle bus from Melksham station may have been a good idea?

I used Melksham station a couple of times yesterday (Wednesday) and whilst there wasn't exactly a bus, there were definitely more than one MPVs meeting and greeting people associated with Womad (staff and performers at a guess, since a couple were carrying either musical instruments or well disguised machine guns...)

I guess the main reason Chippenham was chosen in preference to Melksham was Melksham's lack of capacity - low service frequency by short trains?

There was a danger of trying to put a gallon into a pint pot. Even with extra trains (from where? how on the line?) only 3 carriage platform then a lack of turning spaces for buses and no station loos.

Looking at the A365 near the festival on google maps with traffic colouring, there's quite a lot of yellow, but no red, yet...
https://maps.app.goo.gl/YRt54qNFQ1vNdK9z7

Just seen what looks like new posters at Bradford on Avon station, near entrances, and there is a section on max luggage etc

It includes banned items and has silhouette (near bottom right) of one of those pull along hand trolleys that Festival goes often use

Wonder if WOMAD triggered the update, does Melksham or Chippenham have similar posters.  Possibly been there years but never noticed it before

Another good reason why not ...


Which leaves a gap of about 4 hours each way ... and I think festival go-ers will be headed home?

Not until tomorrow morning if they want to see tonight's acts. Campsite must be vacated by midday.