Brought to you by WBIW News and Network Indiana
Last updated on Thursday, July 21, 2016
(BLOOMINGTON) - The lineup of artists for this year’s 23rd Annual Lotus World Music and Arts Festival includes more than 30 international artists.
Slated for September 15-18, the annual event will include artists from Argentina to Zimbabwe.
Genres include classical Indian sarod, reggae, American root and folk music, east African afro-pop, Yemeni folk-electronic, Swedish hip hop and more. Powerful sounds from the steppes of Mongolia share the stage with mesmerizing Sufi Qawwali, or you can enjoy one of the biggest names in reggae after getting your fill of American old-time, Irish trad, Ethiopian dance, and sizzling Afro-Cuban grooves.
Established in 1994, the Festival is one of the oldest world music festivals in the U.S. and the only festival of its kind in the state of Indiana. It attracts more than 12,000 people to downtown Bloomington annually each fall, for 4-5 days of music and arts from around the globe.
Lotus transforms downtown Bloomington for the Festival, creating a 10-block pedestrian-friendly perimeter and filling 6-8 different venues simultaneously with music and dance. Venues include a range of public spaces, from large outdoor tents perfect for dancing, to family-friendly city parks for interactive workshops, to intimate churches and art spaces suited for attentive listening and contemplation.
Ticket-buyers get a wristband that provides access to all Festival venues, allowing listeners to sample, discover, and relish in unexpected encounters. In addition to ticketed evening showcases, the Lotus vision of inclusion, diversity, and access also reaches into the wide scope of activities that Lotus offers free of charge on Festival weekend -- 40+ hours of free outreach that invites participants from all economic walks of life. We present a free "Lotus in the Park" event with workshops and concerts, a free and interactive Arts Village displaying community-generated visual arts, as well as parades, processions, and exhibits. Lotus is committed to accessibility and to drawing the widest possible cross-section of participants to become part of the music and arts of the world around us.
More detailed schedule information will be available later in the summer and more artists will be added between now and then.
This year's lineup includes:
Also part of the festival is "Indiana Instrument Makers: 200 Years of Tradition and Innovation." Participants include mandolin/fiddle builder Bruce Taggart of Nashville; guitar maker Clint Bear of Madison; dulcimer builder Bill Berg of Nashville; and Tony Aris, African drum maker from Indianapolis.
Tickets for the event go on sale August 1. For more information, visit www.lotusfest.org.
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