The Womad festival has always been about more than music. It is also about spectacle, community, sun, fun and food. But the music is what pulls it all together, a tangled scheme of sounds from every continent. Regular Womad goers have become accustomed to absorbing half-a-dozen unfamiliar music traditions before breakfast (organic, Fairtrade).

The most interesting music falls into the cracks between nationalities and styles. Lo'Jo's exhilarating mix of the French chanson tradition with Arabic and African music sounds great in a stripped-down workshop and at full blast on the open-air stage. The harmony vocals of Yamina and Nadia Nid El Mourid provide a thrilling counterpoint to the gruff vocals of leader Denis Péan.

Unfortunately, it is difficult to appreciate all the nuances when it is pouring with rain. This year will be remembered as the one when Womad stood for World of Mud and Downpours, the first wet festival weekend in almost a decade.

Elsewhere, the music ranges from the slick and polished (McKay, 1 Giant Leap) to the roar and sparky (Eliza Carthy, Julien Jacob, JJC and the 419 Squad). Samba Sunda, a 17-piece band from western Java kitted out in kitsch, dandy uniforms, play elaborate arrangements featuring flutes and loquacious gamelans. Hearing their bizarre version of Brazilian pop is no odder than hearing Kraftwerk Latin style.

Joji Hirota and the Taiko Drummers perform an impressive show, drawing an unexpectedly large workshop crowd to learn the moves needed to play this complex and dynamic music.

Bembeya Jazz and the Super Rail Band of Bamako prompt a bit of world music air-guitar playing with their respective guitarists Sekou Bembeya Diabaté and Djelimady Tounkara on fine heroic form. Their 1970s contemporary Dan Hicks is another festival favourite, as is Jimmy Cliff, whose repertoire of hits makes him the perfect act for any campsite - rain or shine.

But it's the moments that stick in the memory: like Sotho Sounds, a young band of former shepherds from Lesotho, playing catchy, scratchy music on instruments made from old boxes and cooking-oil cans.

It's Sunday, the first fine morning of the festival, and a father and his sons are waiting by the toilets: "Are you having a nice time despite it being rainy and muddy?" asks the father. "I like the muddy," says the little boy.