Factory International

WOMEX 24 Festival: Saturday

This event has ended
Queralt Lahoz wearing sunglasses and all-black outfit, on a bright blue background
Date
26 Oct 2024
Venue
Aviva Studios, Water Street, Manchester M3 4JQ
Tickets
£30

9pm – 1.30am

To book access tickets please call 0161 817 4531 (Monday to Saturday, 10am to 6pm) or email access@factoryinternational.org

This event has ended

Suitable for ages 18+ Please bring ID

Accessibility features available for this event: Wheelchair Access

Discover sounds from across the globe at this year’s Worldwide Music Expo (WOMEX)! Book your Saturday night ticket here.

With 27 acts over three nights, immerse yourself in a vibrant mix of musical genres and styles, encompassing a global spectrum of folk, roots, jazz, and electronic music.

Aviva Studios lies at the heart of the WOMEX 24 Festival, playing host to three stages across the Warehouse and Hall. A perfect place to hang out, soak up the atmosphere and experience music representing diverse cultures and regions worldwide.

The full schedule including stage times is available on womex-festival.com. Please note this is subject to change, and final stage times will be released closer to the event.

Line-up

Nine members of Adédèji smiling with their instruments, wearing orange, purple and yellow clothes

Adédèji (Nigeria)

Adedeji’s music is an infusion of traditional African music with a progressive attitude and the modern sounds of jazz, funk, and soul. The nine-piece band includes some of Nigeria’s best musicians, featuring the grooviest rhythm and horn section that enhances the afrobeat-influenced sound, along with backing vocals that reference Adedeji’s gospel upbringing.

Photo by Carolina Vallejo.

Photograph of the four members of Ão. Three are reflected in a mirror. The other is standing next to the mirror.

Ão (Belgium)

Ão’s mystical blend of fado, indie and subtle electronica, fronted by the serenely commanding voice of Brenda Corijn, drawing on her Mozambican-Portuguese roots, has brought critical acclaim for their debut album and appearances at major European festivals.

Photo by Anneke D Hollander.

Eight members of Barrut wearing all-black – the photo is black-and-white

Barrut (France)

Barrut consists of seven singers and a percussionist who draw inspiration for their magnetic and wild songs from the vocal polyphonies of the French region of Occitania. In a powerful symphony, Barrut makes their intimate and political struggles resonate through pamphlets, fables, epics, and other poetic chronicles of today’s world.

The four members of Buzz’ Ayaz lying on patterned rugs on the floor, surrounded by instruments and equipment

Buzz’ Ayaz (Cyprus)

Monsieur Doumani founder, Antonis Antoniou’s new project manifests a fuzzy urban soundscape of synth textures, dubby electronics, ‘70s psych organ, growling reed utterances, big beats and microtonal Anatolian melodic spices, serving up fresh Eastern-Mediterranean psychedelia.

Photo by Michalis Demetriades.

Clare Sands wearing a bright red dress and playing the fiddle, against a bright blue sky

Clare Sands (Ireland)

A sixth-generation fiddler and bilingual singer from Cork, Ireland, Clare Sands channels the music of her ancestors, making her a unique force in Irish music. Weaving traditional roots with contemporary sounds and influences, Sands’ passion for collaboration has led her to work with some of Ireland’s finest musicians, including Hothouse Flowers, Steve Cooney, Susan O’Neill, Niamh Regan, Brian Finnegan, Mary Coughlan and more.

Black and white photograph of Justin Adams and Mauro Durante playing guitar and violin on stage

Justin Adams & Mauro Durante (UK / Italy)

England’s Justin Adams and Italy’s Mauro Durante released an award-winning debut album, Still Moving, in 2021. Adams (producer of Tinariwen’s breakout albums and music director guitarist with Robert Plant) plays with a post-punk guitar approach enriched by his passion for Arabic music and African trance blues, while Durante (a sought-after violinist and percussionist and leader of Italy’s acclaimed Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino, and long term collaborator of Ludovico Einaudi), gravitates toward the trance rhythms of Southern Italy’s pizzica style.

Photo by Martin Cervelli.

Queralt Lahoz wearing sunglasses and all-black outfit, on a bright blue background

Queralt Lahoz (Spain)

Queralt Lahoz is one of the latest musical sensations emerging from Spain. Her music is infused with Latin, folk, and urban influences, where soul, hip-hop, and dancehall converge naturally and gracefully. These elements are framed by spontaneous overtones of cobla and bolero, inseparable from both her personal and musical background rooted in flamenco.


Rasha Nahas stood in a lift wearing a silver glittery dress

Rasha Nahas (Palestine / Germany)

Palestinian singer-songwriter and instrumentalist Rasha Nahas was born and raised in Haifa, and currently resides and works in Berlin. Rasha has been cultivating a sound that effortlessly blends the resonances of early rock ‘n’ roll with the adventurous echoes of free jazz. Her distinctive approach to songwriting and performance adds depth to her music.

Headshot of Sahra Halgan smiling on a black background

Sahra Halgan (France)

Sahra Halgan is an iconic singer, freedom fighter, and cultural activist from Somaliland, a self-declared independent country in the Horn of Africa not yet recognized internationally, and for which she fights. Her third album is the fruit of a sincere search for authenticity and innovation, an unprecedented alliance between Somali song and original rock, thus enriching the most unexpected landscapes of the world music scene with her inspiration.

Zarina Prvasevda looking to the side. The background is blurred and shows pink blossom on a tree.

Zarina Prvasevda (North Macedonia)

Exploring the labyrinthine roots of the traditional music of the Balkans, award-winning Macedonian artist Zarina Prvasevda and her ensemble celebrate the region’s diverse classical folklore through unconventional arrangements, dynamic rhythms and a contemporary cinematic approach.

Photo by Ivana Batev.

Ticket information

This ticket is for the WOMEX stages at Aviva Studios on Saturday night only. Tickets for Thursday and Friday night at Aviva Studios are available here.

Factory International members get early access to book day tickets at Aviva Studios:

Factory International members on sale: Thursday 19 September, 10am

General tickets on sale: Friday 20 September, 10am

3-Night and 1-Night Passes are also available giving you access to all other venues and showcases. Visit womex-festival.com to find out more.

For ticketing and box office related enquiries, please contact tickets@factoryinternational.org or call 0333 322 8679 (phone lines are open Monday to Saturday, 10am to 6pm).

For more information please visit Ticketing and Sale of Goods Terms & Conditions – Factory International

Credits

WOMEX is produced by Piranha Arts. Manchester Music City is the local host partner for WOMEX 24. WOMEX 24 is supported by Manchester City Council, Arts Council England, Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA), Manchester Airport Group.

Access information

Our full address is Aviva Studios, Water Street, Manchester M3 4JQ and the what3words is chop.feeds.chase.

You can approach Aviva Studios along Water Street (coming from Quay Street) or along Liverpool Road (coming from Deansgate or Castlefield). Both entrances to the building have double sets of glass doors.

Once inside Aviva Studios, there is step-free access to all areas of the venue. The flooring throughout the building is smooth concrete.

The entrance to the Hall is by lift, escalator or stairs from one side of the Social beside the brick arches. There is only one escalator, and this will take you up to the Hall before the show, and will be reversed so that you can travel down at the end of the performance.

The Social has a range of seating, including those with arms and backs.

The bars in the Social and Hall Foyer have lowered accessible service points.

Our building is large. We have portable stools available to borrow if you would benefit from resting along the way during your visit.

We have wheelchair spaces and seats at standing events for all events.

There are accessible toilets on all public levels of our building.

Accessible toilets are located inside the main toilets space in the brick arches of the Social.

Here you’ll find a mixture of accessible cubicles with left- or right-hand transfer, towards the back of the space, as well as ambulant accessible cubicles with grab rails, as well as a Changing Places facility.

The toilets in the brick arches of the Social are split into male, female and gender neutral – all of which contain accessible cubicles. There are shared handwashing facilities in each arch – they have soap dispensers under the mirrors to your left and dryers to the right. There are separate handwashing facilities inside the accessible cubicles.

There are additional single-room accessible toilets located in both Hall Foyers, at stalls and circle level.

There are additional single-room accessible toilets located in the Warehouse Foyer.

You do not need a key to use the accessible toilets at Aviva Studios.

Assistance dogs are welcome in our building, and we can provide mats and water bowls on request, just ask a host when you arrive. We can also take care of your assistance dog if you do not want to take your dog into the performance space. Please also refer to our assistance dogs policy.

If you are bringing an assistance dog to a ticketed event, please let us know in advance by contacting access@factoryinternational.org or calling our access phone number: 0161 817 4531 (phone lines are open 10am to 6pm, Monday to Saturday).

We are sorry that assistive listening is not available for this event. To explore events that do have this access provision available, check out our access performance information page.

Travel information

There are a number of rail and tram stations within the city centre which are just a short distance from Aviva Studios. The closest stations are:

By Bike

There are 40 bike parking spaces at Aviva Studios including space for two accessible bikes.

National Cycling Route 6 passes close to the venue and this TfGM webpage can help with route planning.

You can also hire bikes from on-street docking stations across the city centre. The closest docking stations to our venue are currently on Deansgate by Liverpool Road and (400m from the building) and by King Street (500m from the building). Take a look at Transport for Greater Manchester’s webpage for advice on cycle hire.

By Walking and Other Active Means

Aviva Studios can be approached along Water Street via Liverpool Road (coming from Deansgate or Castlefield).

If you're coming from Quay Street, the safest route to avoid construction works is via the cut-through opposite Gartside Street and past Booking.com.

All footways in the surrounding area are well lit and there are appropriate crossings across all main roads.

Pedestrians with visual impairment are recommended to approach the building via Water Street, from Liverpool Road. This route has traditional carriageway and footway design with fixed street furniture which should help with navigation to the entrance.

A footbridge at Left Bank in Spinningfields provides an accessible link across the River Irwell to Salford Central station, and a further footbridge also links Aviva Studios with the Salford area of Middlewood Locks.

Free bus

The free bus 1 service connects Piccadilly Station, Oxford Road and Deansgate rail stations, as well as other areas of the city centre to Aviva Studios.

The service stops on both Liverpool Road and Quay Street, close to the venue. Buses operate every 10 minutes during the day from Monday to Sunday and they are wheelchair accessible. For full details of the free bus 1 route and timetable, please visit the Bee Network website.

Bee Network services

Piccadilly Gardens is situated in the heart of Manchester and there are a number of bus services that will take you on to Aviva Studios. The 33 bus which starts at Shudehill, calls at Piccadilly Gardens and will take you straight to Liverpool Road. Services operate every 30 minutes Monday to Saturday and every hour on Sunday.

Alternatively, you can board either a 35, 36 or 38 bus to Bridge Street bus stop which is a seven-minute walk via Left Bank and Water Street to the venue.

Coming into Manchester Victoria rail station? Head on over to Shudehill Interchange (which is a seven-minute walk via Hanover Street) where you can catch the 33 bus to Liverpool Road.

Alternatively, you can board either an 8, 67 or 100 bus from Manchester Victoria to Bridge Street bus stop, which is a seven-minute walk via Left Bank and Water Street to the venue.

There is a car park approximately 0.6 miles from Aviva Studios at Water Street Car Park, New Elm Rd, Manchester, M3 4JH.

There is also a NCP car park (Manchester Spinningfields) approximately 0.5 miles away from Aviva Studios at Spinningfields, New Quay Street, Manchester, M3 3BE. It has 35 accessible bays.

There are a small number of Blue Badge spaces along Water St and Quay St. Otherwise head towards Liverpool Road, Great John St and Lower Byrom St – close to our neighbours, the Science and Industry Museum where there are a small number of additional Blue Badge spaces.

For a list of other parking bays available in the area, visit Manchester City Council website.

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