The Canaries version of the WOMAD Festival took place from 12th to 15th November in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.

The WOMAD concept, founded by ex-Genesis member Peter Gabriel, organised its first festival in Shepton Mallet, England in 1982 and has gone on to organise similar events all over the world. Some are one-off festivals while others, like the gatherings in Australia, New Zealand, Sicily, Abu Dhabi, Gran Canaria and the UK, are annual events.

Once again the Gran Canaria version of WOMAD was based at the Parque de Santa Catalina, a city-centre square not too far from the wonderful beach at Playa de las Canteras. The festivals aim was to showcase all forms of art, but music was a central element. The festival is suitable for both adults and children. A unique feature of the WOMAD festival in Gran Canaria is that funding from commercial sponsorship and the support of the local government allow the promoters to make the event totally free for the audience, so there was no need to worry about any tickets.

Some of the performers that featured this year included talented Irish Rockabilly singer Imelda May, US jazz funk musician Roy Ayers, UK's Afro-Cuban percussionist Snowboy and Gran Canaria's own singer and songwriter De Soto. The first performances started at 5:30pm on Thursday 12th November and concluded just before midnight on Sunday 15th November. Imelda May, Roy Ayers and De Soto all performed in different locations as the final acts on Saturday evening.