Last night counted the 3rd Friday night in a row that I've gone out. Not in the traditional state school meaning of the phrase "going out", but in a sense that I've never experienced before.
And this weekend, it wasn't with library students, which to me is a plus.
It's called the Lotus Fest, an annual music and arts festival in Bloomington. And it rocks.
I wasn't sure about it - "world music", Bertie told me. But what does that really mean? Let me tell you:
Brazilian acoustic, Balkan Beatbox (electronic/world fusion), Creole Cowboys, Nordic folk, swedish folk/rock, Uruguayan folk, contemporary Greek, "hot" bluegrass, Agro-pop from Niger, contemporary Spanish flamenco, French Gypsy jazz, Perto Rican plena, virtuoso Hawaiian ukelele, Black Sufis of Gujuarat, Celtic traditional, Mexican fold music, Palestinian oud, and Canadian fold-pop.
This is not a comprehensive list. And we didn't get to see all of them last night, but we saw several in the 5 hours that we wandered around downtown Bloomington. Can I just say this was one of the most incredible experiences of my life.
My roommates and I each got at least one cd of the groups we saw - and one by one fell in love with various musicians.
Next year, please come with me! All of you.
You can check out their website at: www.lotusfest.org
Now I can understand one reason why people love this city so much. I'm not sure how Indiana was able to conjure up this much culture, but it DID. And for that, there are no words.
By the way, the Hot Bluegrass and the Celtic traditional were my favorites, although the Balkan Beatbox was the most unique and exciting show. Nordic folk was high on the list, as well.
1 comment:
I'm in on the Bluegrass... Hook me up with it sometime. I haven't listened to any since Pam Brown took me camping in BeanBlossom, IN at the Bill Monroe Bluegrass Festival. You should attend that, it rocked
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