Lotus street performers create festival atmosphere

Street performer Amir Gray shut his eyes and leaned forward, the honks from his tuba cutting through the cool air, which lay heavy with mist. 

As bright lights from the Buskirk-Chumley Theater poured onto the middle of Kirkwood Avenue, festival attendees crowded around the street performer.

IU students Charlie Jesseph and Jacob “Funk Daddy” Cleveland sauntered past and started to beatbox.

People, music and food filled the 2012 Lotus World Music and Arts Festival Friday night.

Named after the late Lotus Dickey, a singer-songwriter from Orange County, Ind., the annual festival included art and music from cultures around the world.

Bloomingfoods Market and Deli, a main sponsor for Lotus, catered the artists’ hospitality center. Other venues, such as Upland Brewery and FARMbloomington, set up small food stalls for the event.

White tents peppered the city center. Attendees created art in the Arts Village as music boomed from the tents and churches serving as concert venues.

IU students and employees filled the streets alongside town residents and alumni.

Local street performers and the 26 artists brought in this year entertained residents and visitors alike.

Against soothing waves of acoustic guitar riffs, Malian musician Fatoumata Diawara threw her turbaned head back.

A smile danced across her lips as the drummer started tapping a rhythm on the hi-hat behind her.

Diawara’s deep, raspy vocals rose and soared at the Buskirk-Chumley.

Every eye rested on her, an explosion of color in her red-and-yellow striped turban and silver bangles.

She accented her asymmetrical skirt with a belt of shells.

While the performance began at a steady, relaxed pace, Diawara and her band soon had the audience up on its feet and swinging to the beat.

Alexandra Buck, a second-year master’s student, attended the festival with José Toledo, a first-year Intensive English Program student from Peru.

“We danced the whole night,” Buck said. “Everyone, the whole concert hall, was up dancing. I cried. It was beautiful.”

On a stone block outside of the courthouse, a street performer held up a lit torch and two knife blades. 

“Ready for this? Ready for this?” he cried out as he threw the torch and blades into the air.

He caught them with his hands, one after the other.

“Now, didn’t that make a great picture?” he asked the crowd.

Slavic Soul Party kept the IU-Bloomington Tent thumping with their Balkan-style grooves.

Made up of nine musicians on drums, brass

instruments and an accordion, Slavic Soul Party wove in jazz, funk, gospel and dub
influences.

Hanggai, a Chinese group that plays a blend of traditional Mongolian folk music and more modern musical styles such as punk rock, played at the Ivy Tech Community College Tent.

Hurcha, clad in a traditional Mongolian wrestling outfit including a heavy leather jacket pierced with round metal studs, leaned off the front stage toward the cheering crowd.

Sweat dripped from his forehead and chest, adorned with an array of beaded and metal chains. He passionately yelled a string of words in Mongolian.

The audience erupted into cheers and applause. Fists rose. Feet stomped.

Ilchi, the group’s lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist, joined Hurcha in singing melodies.
Batubagen, another member of the group, played the morin khuur, a Mongolian “horse fiddle.”

He sang hoomii, a very low-pitched Mongolian throat singing, set to fast punk rhythms.
“The people are singing songs about the relationships and friendships,” guitarist Ai Lun said. “They also sing about the nature, how important nature is to people.”

He winked as a storm raged outside the tent.

“These songs are telling the inside stories,” he said. “The grass is growing for the animals. They’re just hoping that the rain comes.”