WOMADelaide reveals first three artists for huge 2027 lineup
Forget waiting around for the full lineup drop; WOMADelaide has jumped the queue and handed us three massive names before anyone even asked.
WOMADelaide has confirmed the first three acts for its 2027 program, with Leon Bridges, Madness and Tinariwen locked in early.
The trio kicks off celebrations for the festival’s 35th year, with genre-defying soul star Bridges, ska-pop institution Madness and Tuareg desert blues legends Tinariwen all set to descend on Adelaide’s Botanic Park/Tainmuntilla.
WOMADelaide 2027
- 5-8 March 2027
- Adelaide Botanic Park/Tainmuntilla
- First Release tickets on sale now
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Grammy winner Leon Bridges will bring his new Happiness Anytime tour to Australia, named after his upcoming fifth studio album.
The record marks a sun-soaked new direction for Bridges, drawing on Jamaican dancehall culture and the rhythms of afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti, and produced alongside J Lloyd and Lydia Kitto of Jungle.
Expect a full band experience too, with Bridges bringing a DJ, horn section and backing vocalists along for the ride.
Madness, meanwhile, are heading back to Adelaide for the first time since a 2009 show at Thebarton Theatre, arriving with four decades of chart-topping hits including Baggy Trousers, House of Fun, Our House and It Must Be Love.
Rounding out the announcement are Tinariwen, the Grammy-winning Malian band who’ve been fusing blues with Saharan tradition and Tuareg storytelling since 1979, and who return to WOMADelaide having first played the festival back in 2004.
WOMADelaide has been running since 1992 and pulls tens of thousands of punters to Adelaide each year for a weekend built around music, art and dance from every corner of the globe. This latest reveal is just a taste of what’s to come, with the full 2027 program still to be announced.
The festival has also shaken up its ticketing this year, adding one, two, three and four-day options so people can pick whichever combination suits them best, alongside payment plans across the board to keep things accessible.
Tinariwen’s story is also a particularly powerful one — the band formed as a wedding act in northern Mali before becoming a symbol of Tuareg resistance and poetry, and they’ve continued using their music to raise awareness of the ongoing struggles facing their people.
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