WOMADelaide 2027: Dates, Lineup, Tickets and Travel Guide

WOMADelaide 2027 runs from Friday 5 March to Monday 8 March 2027 at Botanic Park/Tainmuntilla in Adelaide, South Australia, over the March long weekend ^{1 18}. It is the festival's 35th year, and the organiser has already set the following editions for 10 to 13 March 2028 and 9 to 12 March 2029 ^{1 9}.

The weekend stays fixed to the long weekend in early March, so the dates shift by only a few days from one year to the next. Friday is a half-day that starts in the late afternoon, while Saturday, Sunday and Monday run from midday to midnight:

• Friday 5 March: gates open 4pm, close midnight ³

• Saturday 6 to Monday 8 March: gates open 12pm, close midnight ³

• Box office: Friday 3pm to 10pm, Saturday to Monday 12pm to 10pm ³

The festival grew out of the Adelaide Festival of Arts. Its first edition opened on 13 March 1992, after the Adelaide Festival invited the UK WOMAD organisation founded by Peter Gabriel and Thomas Brooman ¹⁴. It was planned for Long Gully Oval in Belair National Park but moved to Botanic Park at the last minute because of the bushfire threat ¹⁴. It became an annual event in 2003 and grew to four days in 2010 ¹⁴. The only year away from Botanic Park was 2021, when COVID-19 rules pushed it to King Rodney Park/Ityamai-itpina with seated concerts on one stage ¹⁴.

WOMADelaide 2027 sits inside a crowded month in Adelaide. The Adelaide Festival runs from 26 February to 14 March 2027 and the Adelaide Fringe from 19 February to 21 March 2027, so the city is full of visitors well before the gates open at Botanic Park ^{18 19}.

Tip: The Friday Night ticket covers only the 4pm to midnight session, which suits visitors flying in that afternoon from Melbourne or Sydney ^{2 3}.

A WOMADelaide 2027 adult wristband costs 229 AUD for 1 Day and 479 AUD for all 4 Days, with youth prices for ages 13 to 17 and free entry for children aged 3 to 12 booked with an adult ². Everyone aged 3 and over must wear a wristband to enter Botanic Park/Tainmuntilla ³. Prices listed on the official ticket page in early November 2026:

• 4 Day: adult 479 AUD, youth 330 AUD ²

• 3 Day: adult 447 AUD, youth 312 AUD ²

• 2 Day: adult 345 AUD, youth 245 AUD ²

• 1 Day: adult 229 AUD, youth 168 AUD ²

• Friday Night: adult 179 AUD, youth 126 AUD ²

Tickets are sold in four releases, Early Bird, First, Second and Final, and the price rises each time one sells out ². By early November 2026 the First Release had sold out and the Second Release was on sale ². There is no concession price for the 2027 festival ².

Booking fees apply on top. The administration fee is 6.90 AUD per ticket for 4, 3 and 2 Day wristbands and 4.95 AUD for single days, and postage is 6 AUD per order from September to February or 9.50 AUD for express post in late February and early March ². A payment plan is open for orders placed before 30 November 2026: pay 10% plus fees upfront and the rest in monthly instalments, all due by 15 January 2027 ². Groups of 10 or more adults get 5% off during the First and Second Releases ².

Children aged 3 to 12 go free when booked in the same order as adult tickets, up to two per adult; each extra child costs 10 AUD per day, and children aged 2 and under need no ticket ². Since 2025, 3 AUD from every ticket goes to Greening Australia for native tree plantings ¹².

Tip: Wristbands arrive by post. If yours has not come, bring the booking confirmation email and photo ID to the box office; a lost wristband costs a 5 AUD replacement fee plus postage ^{2 3}.

WOMADelaide 2027 takes place in Botanic Park/Tainmuntilla, a 34-hectare park on the north-eastern edge of Adelaide's city centre at 34.9146° S, 138.6108° E, bounded by Hackney Road and Frome Road and backing onto Adelaide Zoo and the River Torrens ^{13 11}. Entry is through the Frome Road gate or the Hackney Road gate ³.

From Adelaide Airport, about 6 km from the city centre ¹⁷, the J1 and J2 buses take 25 to 30 minutes and run every 15 to 30 minutes from 5:00am to 11:30pm ¹⁷. Fares were 4.25 AUD at peak times and 2.40 AUD off-peak with a metroCARD or tap-and-pay card, and a taxi costs about 25 AUD for a trip of just under 15 minutes ¹⁷.

Inside the city, public transport does most of the work:

• A free tram service operates between the South Terrace, Adelaide Entertainment Centre, Festival Plaza and Botanic Gardens stops ¹⁶

• From the Botanic Gardens stop, walk north up Frome Road past the Adelaide Botanic Garden to the Frome Road gate

• City Connector buses 98A and 98C: free, daily, looping the city centre and North Adelaide ¹⁶

• City Connector buses 99A and 99C: free, Monday to Friday, inner-city loop ¹⁶

Cycling is the local favourite. Bike parking sits next to each entrance; bring your own lock, as it is monitored Friday from 3:30pm to 1am and Saturday to Monday from 11:30am to 12:30am, with no overnight cover ³. There is no car parking on site, so drivers pre-book night and weekend spaces in city car parks on Rundle Street or Frome Street and walk across ³. An accessible drop-off zone sits next to the Hackney Road entrance ³.

Tip: Coming by tram from Glenelg or the city, use the Frome Road gate; staying in the East End or north-east suburbs, the Hackney Road gate is usually the shorter walk.

The first WOMADelaide 2027 lineup, released on 14 October 2026, named 36 acts for Botanic Park, led by Underworld, Madness, Leon Bridges and Tinariwen ⁹. Madness, Leon Bridges and Tinariwen were announced first on 17 September 2026 ¹. Names worth planning around:

• Underworld (UK), with DJs Kenny Dope (USA) and Bradley Zero (UK), an original Boiler Room programmer ⁹

• Christine Anu (Australia), back for the first time in 30 years after playing in 1995 and 1997 ⁹

• Dr L. Subramaniam (India), who played the first festival in 1992, and DakhaBrakha (Ukraine), first here in 2011 ⁹

• Bhutan Balladeers, the first Bhutanese group to play WOMADelaide ⁹

• Angine de Poitrine (Canada), known for papier-mache masks, and Khun Narin (Thailand) ⁹

• Gravity & Other Myths and SAZ in Mortal Coil, Adelaide circus with Indian musicians ⁹

Playing days for each artist have not been published yet; the full timetable usually appears in the app close to the festival.

The site has a clear shape. Stage 1, the Foundation Stage, sits in the centre with Stage 2 and Stage 3 on either side, and smaller stages include the Zoo Stage, the Moreton Bay Stage and two stages in Speakers Corner ^{14 3}. Beyond the concerts, Taste the World has touring artists cooking dishes from home, a programme that began here in 2004; The Planet Talks covers environmental and global issues; and the KidZone runs hands-on art and nature play ^{9 14 3}. In 2026 the park also held WoMarkets, a shaded hub of more than 40 retail stalls, plus The Sanctuary Restaurant inside Adelaide Zoo ¹⁰.

Tip: Low beach-style chairs and small pop-up shades are allowed only at the back and sides of the audience, and saving spots with rugs or chairs is banned at standing shows ³.

March afternoons in Adelaide average 26.6 °C at the Kent Town weather station, with nights falling to 15.3 °C, 24.9 mm of rain over 5.9 rainy days and a UV index of 8 ¹⁵. The March record at Kent Town is 42.2 °C, so a hot spell over the long weekend is always possible ¹⁵. Botanic Park/Tainmuntilla has deep shade under its Moreton Bay figs and the plane tree avenue planted in 1874, but the open lawns in front of the main stages have very little ¹³.

Arrive when the gates open at noon on Saturday, Sunday or Monday if you want shade near a stage, then come back to it after the hottest hours ³. The park gets dusty, and the organiser advises bringing allergy and asthma medication ³.

Crowds are biggest on Saturday. In 2023 WOMADelaide sold out its Friday, Saturday and Sunday before opening, with Monday the only day still on sale, and a total of 110,000 attendances ⁸. Wikipedia gives the daily capacity as 30,000 for that year ¹⁴. In 2026 Saturday drew the highest attendance in several years ⁷.

What to wear and pack for a WOMADelaide day:

• Hat, sunglasses, sunscreen and a light scarf for the afternoon sun ³

• Sturdy closed shoes for dusty paths and roots

• A light layer for after dark, when the average low is 15.3 °C ¹⁵

• An empty reusable bottle for the free SA Water refill stations ³

• A phone with the app installed and a portable charger ³

• Photo ID, plus your wristband or booking confirmation ³

Note: Alcohol, liquids, glass, high-back chairs, tents, oversized umbrellas, cameras with detachable lenses and pets are not allowed in ³.

For most WOMADelaide visitors, the East End around Rundle Street is the most practical base, because its late-night food, bars and brunch spots sit within walking distance of the Hackney Road gate of Botanic Park/Tainmuntilla ^{6 3}. Rooms in Adelaide go fast in early March. During WOMADelaide 2023 the CBD set a hotel occupancy record on the Saturday, visitors from outside Adelaide made up 52% of the audience, and they used 110,777 bed nights ⁸.

The overlap with other festivals drives that demand. With the Adelaide Fringe running from 19 February to 21 March 2027 and the Adelaide Festival from 26 February to 14 March 2027, many rooms are booked months ahead ^{19 18}. Book as soon as you buy your wristbands, ideally before the payment-plan deadline of 30 November 2026 ².

Areas to compare:

• East End and Rundle Street: shortest walk to Hackney Road, late kitchens and independent shops ⁶

• Victoria Square and Gouger Street: near the Central Market and Chinatown, with trams up King William Street into the free zone ^{6 16}

• North Adelaide: quieter streets, linked to the city by the free 98A and 98C City Connector buses every day ¹⁶

• Glenelg: beach and Jetty Road restaurants at the end of the tram line, but a longer ride home after midnight ⁶

Short-stay rentals in the inner eastern suburbs also suit groups who plan to cycle, since the festival offers free monitored bike parking at both gates ³.

Tip: If your accommodation is near a tram stop, check whether it lies inside the free stretch between South Terrace and Botanic Gardens; outside it you need a fare ¹⁶.

A phone with mobile data does most of the practical work at WOMADelaide 2027 in Botanic Park/Tainmuntilla: the app timetable and site map, cashless payments, and messages to a group spread across eight stages ^{1 3}. With a daily capacity of 30,000 recorded in 2023, a large crowd shares the same few cell sites around the park, so messages can lag right after a headline set ends ¹⁴. Public Wi-Fi is not something to count on in an open park, so mobile data is the dependable option.

Data use here comes from small, constant tasks rather than streaming:

• Checking which stage is next and how far away it is in the app ³

• Messaging friends to meet at the Info Booth near the Foundation Stage ³

• Keeping a parent's phone reachable while a child wears a wristband with that number on it ³

• Uploading photos and video, which uses more data than everything else combined

• Checking trams and City Connector buses after midnight ¹⁶

Install an eSIM for Australia before you fly, so the connection works when you land at Adelaide Airport and stays the same from the J1 bus to the park gates. Keep roaming off on your home SIM if you only need it for calls and texts.

Battery is the other limit. Four days of noon-to-midnight sessions with the screen on in bright sun drain a phone quickly, which is why the organiser lists a portable charger alongside the app ³.

Tip: Download the WOMADelaide app and save your own short list of sets at the hotel on Wi-Fi, then you only need light data in the park.

Botanic Park/Tainmuntilla is home to over 50,000 grey-headed flying-foxes, Australia's largest native bat, which have roosted in the park since 2010 and leave at sunset to feed across Adelaide ¹¹. The species is listed as vulnerable and protected by law, which is why WOMADelaide asks visitors never to approach a bat on the ground or in distress and instead to tell a staff member trained and equipped to handle it ^{4 11}.

The colony shapes the festival in ways first-timers notice quickly:

• At dusk on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday, in March, the bats stream out over the stages, a sight many regulars wait for ¹¹

• Sprinklers in the trees at Speakers Corner switch on in hot weather to cool the roosting bats ^{3 4}.

• The bats are noisy by day, so expect calls overhead during quiet acoustic sets

Safety beyond the bats is straightforward. In an emergency, call Triple Zero (000); dialling 112 from a mobile is redirected to the same service ²⁰. Lost children and lost property both go to the Info Booth near the Foundation Stage ³. After the festival, lost credit cards are destroyed and other valuables are kept for no more than two weeks ³.

For anyone who needs a break from the crowd, Autism SA runs a Sensory Bus with low lighting and seating between Moreton Bay Stage 5 and the accessible toilets, open Friday from 4pm and Saturday to Monday from noon until late ⁵. Some artists use strobe and haze, and the MCs announce it before each set ⁵.

Note: Do not touch a fallen bat even to help it. Point it out to festival staff and keep others away.