WOMAD stage and venue manager Gary Newland is launching a new music and arts festival this summer in Suffolk.

The Norwich-based world music promoter and programmer is overseeing the inaugural Rhythms Sans Frontières music and arts festival, which is due to run from 1-3 July 2022 at Euston Park.

The 3,000-capacity event will include performers and workshops covering genres including indie, Latin, R&B, jazz fusion, reggae, bluegrass, and Afro-beat. The line-up of artists includes The Turbans (pictured), Addictive TV, The London Afrobeat Collective, Electric Jalaba, Muntu Valdo and all-female Afro-Latin jazz ensemble Colectiva.

The festival will also feature a speaker tent where debate and discussion will focus on environmental and human rights issues. Speakers will include representatives from international NGOs and charities such as Amnesty International, Medecins sans Frontières, Frank Water and World Land Trust.

Among the collaborators behind the new festival is Ben Street, promoter of Norwich multi-venue festival Wild Paths, and Gemma and Marcus Brown who run Wooden Roots; a company that imports and builds traditional West African instruments.

Founding director of Music Worldwide Limited, Newland has worked on WOMAD since 2000 providing programming and artist management services. He has been its venue manager, for two stages, since 2008.

He said, “Festivals are incredibly important spaces where immersive themes are becoming more and more important to festival-goers. We are aiming for the festival to be truly ground breaking not just in terms of the eclectic mix of artists coming along, but also our emphasis on important issues concerning the environment, climate change and human rights’.