WOMEX

The world music industry's trade fair, and the widest international delegate list on the calendar.

• Five days in a different European city each October. WOMEX 26 runs 21-25 October in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
• Produced by Piranha Arts, the Berlin company that has run it since the first edition in 1994.
• One registration covers everything: trade fair, conference, showcases, film screenings, the Club Summit, and the award and opening ceremony.
• Around 2,600 professionals from 90 countries are expected, on a delegate list weighted towards promoters, agents, labels and cultural institutions.

A rate ladder that punishes waiting, and a student price that does not move.

• The rate steps up as the event approaches. €390 for payment received by 25 September, €410 until 16 October, €430 walk-up on site.
• Companies get a volume discount from the third registered person onward, which brings the late rate down to €350.
• The student rate is €170 at every deadline, credentials required, and it is the cheapest five-day badge in this directory.
• All prices are net. 3% local IGIC consumer tax is added at checkout, and stands carry 7% IGIC or 19% VAT where applicable.

There are no single-day tickets and no guest list. Speakers and officially selected showcase artist representatives register free.

The 2025 numbers, because published figures beat adjectives.

• 2,040 professionals from 100 countries attended WOMEX 25 in Tampere, including 281 performing artists.
• 407 exhibiting companies from 41 countries took 176 stands on the trade fair floor.
• 60 showcase acts played 7 stages, and the film programme ran 17 music documentaries.
• 95 speakers from 48 countries covered 18 conference sessions, 9 networking sessions and 6 mentoring sessions.

The delegate mix is the part worth reading twice: 720 event promoters, 338 labels, publishers and distributors, 411 booking agents, 383 managers and 242 producers. This is a buyers’ room, not a peer room.

Book it if you are:

• An artist or manager building an international touring base. 720 promoters in one building is the entire argument.
• A label, publisher or distributor working across territories, particularly outside the Anglo-American market.
• An export office, funder or cultural institution. The institutional presence here is heavier than at any commercial conference on the calendar.

Skip it if you are:

Head-on, with the biggest event of the month.

• WOMEX 26 runs 21-25 October.
• Amsterdam Dance Event runs 21-25 October, the same five days, its 30th edition, with 11,000 delegates.
• The two do not compete for the same person. ADE is electronic music and the dance economy. WOMEX is export markets, touring and the global roots industry.
• If you genuinely work both, this is the one week of the year where you have to pick, and the pick should follow where your next twelve months of bookings come from.

Nothing published, and I would rather say so than imply otherwise.

• WOMEX had confirmed dates, rates and format for 2026 but not a session-level conference programme when this was assessed.
• The 2025 edition ran 18 conference sessions and they were not built around AI.
• The rating reflects what is published, not a prediction that the subject will go unmentioned. Rights, streaming economics and cultural funding all touch it.
• This is a world and roots music market first. Its technology conversation runs behind the label-facing European events by a wide margin.

If AI programming is what you are choosing on, Music Tectonics has the model companies on stage and The NAMM Show runs a named AI programme. WOMEX earns its place on a different argument entirely.