Worldwide Music Expo (WOMEX)

WOMEX – Worldwide Music Expo – is the most international and culturally diverse music meeting in the world and the biggest conference of the global music scene, featuring a trade fair, talks, films and showcase concerts.

Over 2,600 professionals (including 260 performing artists) come together every October from 90 countries, making WOMEX the leading networking platform for the world music industry. Its musical spectrum is unparalleled in the international showcase performance market, ranging from the most traditional to the new global local underground, embracing folk, roots, jazz, local and diaspora cultures as much as urban and electronic sounds from all over the globe.

7 stages, around 700 exhibiting companies, 100+ speakers, films, an opening concert and an award ceremony across five packed networking days and rather short nights.

WOMEX and its community aim to support and strengthen the role of culture around the globe and to spread its values through nurturing and promoting creativity and music. As a result, the local and global music community is able to – and needs to – contribute to cross-cultural understanding in a welcoming, tolerant, diverse and productive manner.

The event remains devoted to facilitating and promoting the global music industry and providing a platform to connect, inspire and share experiences, enabling new partnerships across transcontinental markets and an open economic and international cultural dialogue.

Since its first edition in 1994, WOMEX has been roaming all across Europe from Berlin (1994), via Brussels (1995), Marseille (1997), Stockholm (1998), Berlin (1999 and 2000), Rotterdam (2001), Essen (2002 and 2004), Newcastle (2005), Sevilla (2003 and 2006 to 2008), Copenhagen (2009 to 2011), Thessaloniki (2012), Cardiff (2013), Santiago de Compostela (2014 and 2016), Budapest (2015 and 2020 - the first ever digital edition), Katowice (2017), Las Palmas, Gran Canaria (2018), Tampere (2019), Porto (2021), Lisbon (2022), A Coruña (2023). In 2024, WOMEX is heading to Manchester, UK.