This weekend Bloomington will play host to the fall’s cultural equivalent of Little 500. Years of hard work, dozens of musicians and artists and more than 10,000 energetic attendees will combine for the 14th annual Lotus World Music and Arts Festival beginning tonight. The musical acts will travel from as far as halfway around the world and from as close as the local community to entertain anticipated thousands.\nThe performers are the most important element of Lotus Fest. Many of them are new to Bloomington, but others are Lotus veterans. Genres for Lotus Fest fit into the category of “world music” – a term too broad to define, Lotus Fest Director Lee Williams said. Global styles of music include Slovenian folk, Middle Eastern world fusion, blues, jazz, Tunisian rai – a blend of traditional Middle Eastern music with contemporary electronic beats – and Dominican Republic acoustic. \nThe history of Lotus Fest is as interesting as the artists who participate in it.\nInspired by Bloomington musician Lotus Dickey, who died in 1989, the festival was created by Williams, IU professor Shahyar Daneshgar and Bloomington musician James Combs. They wanted to capture both Dickey’s giving and curious spirit, according to the Lotus Fest Web site, as well as representing the “universality” of the lotus flower, which grows in Lake Monroe and millions of other lakes all over the world.\nWith each passing year, the festival is tweaked and new components are added, said Lotus Fest Assistant Director LuAnne Holladay. \nWilliams and Holladay have been with Lotus since its inception in 1994. The two have been planning this year’s Lotus Fest since January, and are responsible for inviting artists to perform and coordinating their fall tour \nschedules with this weekend’s.\nPerformances will be held at various venues around downtown Bloomington, including several sponsored tents, the Buskirk-Chumley Theater, the Bloomingfoods stage at Third Street Park and The Bluebird. Concerts held at The Bluebird are for the 21-and-older crowd, but the other events will be held in all-ages tents throughout the weekend as well.\nLotus Fest will kick off at 7 p.m. tonight at the Buskirk with former “Full House” star, singer-songwriter Jeff Daniels. Crowd favorite Balkan Beat Box will head the other kick-off concert at 9 p.m. in the Classic Touch Limousine Service Tent at Fourth and Grant streets.\nThis will be the third year that Balkan Beat Box has performed at Lotus Fest, but Williams assures that it was not difficult getting them to perform again. \n“They think that Lotus Fest is the best place to play in the U.S.,” Williams said. “The atmosphere (at Lotus) has a super high energy, a feeling of joy and there are very powerful emotions when people come \nto Lotus. \nWilliams said people who attend will be able to appreciate many types of music they are unfamiliar with. \n“The audience is fantastic, and the absolute energy is palpable, and the artists feel that,” he said. “(The artists) all want to come back so desperately, for the energy that they don’t get from other cities.” \nRepresenting the classic reggae genre is Taj Weekes and Adowa, touring the U.S. from St. Lucia in the Caribbean. Weekes expressed his excitement to play at Lotus Fest, by saying they are ready to “bring reggae back to the people.” \n“When I was growing up, reggae music was news, it was like the town crier,” Weekes said. “It’s gone away from what it’s supposed to be, and so we’re bringing it back to the people. We are the Rasta \ntown criers.”\nIn comparison to “Bob Marley’s reggae,” Weekes said that he doesn’t compare himself to famous singer. \n“Reggae was there before Bob, he just played reggae,” he said. “That’s what I do, I just play reggae.”\nWith so many returning acts, Lotus Fest planners managed to add one new element to the Lotus itinerary: a 35-piece marching band called March Fourth Marching Band, to lead several parades that will be held throughout the weekend. \n“Not everything at Lotus is ticketed,” Holladay said. “On Saturday afternoon, we have Lotus in the Park at Third Street Park that has performances by several artists, and workshops on singing and dancing and arts projects. It’s a time when people are just hanging out, having a good time.” \nThere will also be a tent set up on Sixth Street with a community project: A sand mandala. Mandalas, traditionally created by Buddhist monks, are crafted from colored sand into intricate, circular designs.\n “People can come in and get involved and hands-on experience at Lotus,” Holladay said. \nStudents in the IU School of Fine Arts Textile Department supplied inflatable sculptures that will be placed outside of the community involvement tent, as well as hand-dyed silk banners made by Lotus planners, she said.\nFor the next three days, a “cultural stew” will be brewing in downtown Bloomington, Holladay said.\n“There are people out in the streets of all ages, eating at the restaurants and just hanging out. Everyone comes out and has a good time downtown,” she said. \n“This is when the town comes to life, and there are such positive, good vibes.”
\nTicket information:
Kick-Off Concerts:\nAn Evening with Jeff Daniels, $25\nBalkan Beat Box, $25
Friday, Saturday:\n$28 per night w/ valid IU ID\n$50 for Friday, Saturday pass w/o ID\nTickets can be purchased \nonline at www.bloomingtonarts.info,\nSunrise Box Office,\nBloomingfoods East,\nBloomingfoods downtown, or at\nBloomingfoods near west side.
\nThe Acts:\nCourtesy of www.lotusfest.org
Amazones–Women Drummers from Guinea (Friday, Saturday)\nPercussion & dance
Anat Cohen Quartet (Saturday, Sunday)\nJazz
Balkan Beat Box (Thursday) \nMiddle Eastern fusion
Brina (Friday, Saturday, Lotus in the Park)\nTraditional & modern Slovenian folk
Chic Gamine (Friday, Saturday)\nWorld a cappella
Chirgilchin (Friday, Saturday) \nTuvan throat-singing\n \nGuy Davis (Saturday) \nBlues\n \nJeff Daniels (Thursday) \nSinger-songwriter\n \nDhafer Youssef (Friday, Saturday) \nTunisian oud & vocals\n \nDhoad Gypsies from Rajasthan, (Friday, Saturday, Lotus in the Park)
Gypsy music from India \nAlasdair Fraser & Natalie Haas (Friday)\n \nCeltic music from Scotland & the U.S. \nJavier Garcia (Friday, Saturday) \nLatin/Caribbean pop
Golem (Saturday)\nRockin’ Klezmer
The Lonesome Sisters (Saturday, Sunday) \nOld-time, high lonesome\n \nMarch Fourth Marching Band (Friday, Saturday)\nMarching band, street performance\n \nMC Rai (Friday, Saturday) \nTunisian rai\n \nHelder Moutinho (Saturday, Sunday) \nPortuguese fado
Puerto Plata (Friday, Saturday, Lotus in the Park)\nGuitar & son from the Dominican Republic
Red Stick Ramblers (Friday) \nLouisiana old-time music\n \nChango Spasiuk (Friday, Saturday)\nArgentinian accordion\n \nToubab Krewe (Friday, Saturday)\nWest African roots music
17 Hippies (Friday, Saturday) \nEuropean folk fusion from Germany
Taj Weekes & Adowa (Saturday) \nReggae from St. Lucia
