WOMEX returns to Santiago de Compostela after the 2014 festival. The world music event will hold its annual festival in the Galician capital, with one of the biggest professional spectacles devoted to such music (WOMEX Day). But the supplementary programme is even more interesting for tourists visiting Compostela from October 19 to 23. More than sixty concerts spread around different emblematic venues in the old town make up WOMEX Night, apart from conferences, storytelling sessions, film screenings, etc.

The professional WOMEX will take place in the Galician City of Culture, on Monte Gaiás. It will bring together more than 2,000 festival delegates for the official programme (conferences, film screenings…). The WOMEX Night is more widespread, since the supplementary programme will be held in the Auditorio de Galicia (opening), Auditorio Abanca (theatre and closing), Praza da Quintana (concerts), Teatro Principal, Salón Teatro, Sala Capitol and Museo das Peregrinacións de Santiago (night-time screening of films). Tickets for this open programme are already on sale (from 20 euros), with the possibility of buying one of the 200 full passes for 55 euros.

Welcome to Área Santiago, WOMEX Delegates!

Although the professional and public programmes are interesting in order to listen to all different kinds of world music in Compostela, even more interesting is the possibility of promoting Santiago and its surroundings to the more than 2,000 delegates that will stay in the city’s hotels. The intensive five-day programme will not leave much time for sightseeing, but no self-respecting tourist can leave Galicia without visiting the Cathedral, seeing the giant Botafumeiro censer or experiencing the atmosphere of the Mercado de Abastos (food market) and its fresh fish and seafood, red meat or great variety of fruit and vegetables.

However, we do not want to miss the opportunity of offering tours from Compostela to the surrounding municipalities. Área Santiago features more heritage, more Way of St. James, more gastronomy, but also incredible scenery, trekking routes or spas and golf courses.

And since it is not possible to visit all 16 municipalities, we recommend a choice of three visits: a nature tour, a gastronomy tour and a cultural tour, although all three have a bit of everything. We will therefore visit Silleda and A Estrada, Rois and Padrón, and Melide and Arzúa.

In our first tour, we suggest discovering the famous Pazo de Oca (A Estrada) and its 19th-century gardens, followed by a trekking route, the Carboeiro botanical route, also featuring a Romanesque church.

For the gastronomy tour, we recommend completing a section of the French Way of St. James, from Melide to Arzúa. We will discover a charming village (Furelos) and then eat octopus in Melide. For dessert we can choose between traditional baking, also from Melide, or cheese from Arzúa.

Our recommendation for the cultural tour is going down to Padrón on Sunday to visit its traditional Sunday market, undoubtedly a real local experience. There are also a lot of churches, convents and writers’ houses to visit. And on the way, we recommend stopping to visit Pazo de Faramello, another secluded gem very close to Santiago.