Chicago's World Music Festival spans the globe for 10th year

[Above: Chicha Libre]

With enough persistence, cuisine from nearly every world culture can be sampled throughout Chicago within a year, and this weekend, music from nearly every culture can be sampled within a week at Chicago's World Music Festival. Now in its 10th year, the largest and longest running international music festival in the world is accessible to all Chicagoans with its combination of free and ticketed performances.

Starting September 19th, it will be difficult to go out in the city without stumbling upon a World Music Festival concert, with more than 70 events being held at 21 venues around town. An average of 60,000 people attend each year, with both traditional and contemporary fare to attract a crowd as diverse as the performers. In the past decade, more than 500 artists from some 50 countries have come to Chicago to perform for the festival.

Most venues' concerts are themed by night, so rock fans who dig that Gogol Bordello vibe can stop by Marytrs' on Friday to check out Hungary's Little Cow and the “psychedelic Peruvian Cumbia surf” of Chicha Libre. Little Cow's tune “A Szaja Ize” from I'm in Love With Every Lady combines the perfect mix of accordion and male voices singing in chorus to sound lovesick through the language barrier. Many bands play at multiple venues over the course of the week, so if $12 is too steep on Friday, take a trip to Navy Pier on Saturday to catch Chicha Libre and French Indian and Gypsy fusion group Rupa & The April Fishes (think Stereolab meets Feist).

On Sunday, hit up the Museum of Contemporary Art to check out the Jeff Koons (pop art provocateur) exhibit on its final day in addition to the African Rumba and Soukous of Samba Mapangala & Virunga and Zimbabwe's Chiwoniso (Afropop). Prefer more contemporary African fare? Check out the Nomadic Wax African Hip Hop Showcase on Monday at Sonotheque to hear the wicked rhymes of Senegal's Baay Bia and Baay Musa.

Among partnerships with corporations such as United Airlines and Mexico's Board of Tourism, other festivals in Chicago joined up to be part of the World Music Festival. The Hideout Block Party (September 20-21) is also sponsoring international music acts to provide the best of both indie and world music, so one doesn't have to miss The New Pornographers to also see Mali's Vieux Farka Touré play the desert blues. Desert lovers fret not, for the folk band Moscow Nights are playing at Eli's Cheesecake Festival for a free performance on Sunday.

With so many events to choose from through the week and many bands playing more than once, Chicagoans will have plenty of opportunities to tour the world's music once (or twice) over.

Related Links:
Hideout Block Party features the New Pornographers, Drunken Spelling Bee, Michael Jackson tribute and more
Paste Magazine Issue #46: The International Issue
Gogol Bordello - "American Wedding" - Video of the Day