World music. That label…I’m sorry, but all I can think of is Tim Robbins’ character in High Fidelity, ponytail and terrible cooking smells and all. It’s not fair, and kind of xenophobic when you come down to it. I mean, do people in Brazil judge "American" music based on those Native American flute and chanting new age CDs?

Personal musical opinions aside, current politics have made negotiating the visa process and getting a foreign artist in the country an art in itself, not to mention the expense. The Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services charges a $130 visa application fee, plus an extra $1000 if you want to expedite the process. Not the kind of change your average musician has just laying around.

On the spectator side, short of filling your passport with exotic stamps (not a bad idea, actually) or buying those sketchy world music sampler CDs, it’s kind of hard to break into the scene and separate the amazing from the awful when you’ve got a whole world of new names to cover. Sympathetic to your frustration, a trio of U.S. presenters put together GlobalFEST, a one-night, three-stage music festival at the Joseph Rupp Public Theater featuring 16 artists from all over the world on Saturday, Jan. 10.

Here’s how the party will work. Tickets are $40. Yeah, a little hard on the post-holiday budget, but it’s eight hours of music, and with acts going simultaneously on three stages, you’ll still be missing some. Exchange your ticket for a wristband, and from 8 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. the stages will operate on a 20-minute stagger, each artist presenting a 40-minute set. This way, you can spend all night in one seat and let the music come to you, or "if you’re a channel surfer and you want to see some of everything you could theoretically catch a little bit of all the artists," says Bill Bragin, director of Joe’s Pub at the Public Theater and one of the event organizers. "At least until you hear someone who completely knocks you out and you can’t leave." At 1:30 a.m., the rotating acts wrap it up and DJ collective GlobeSonic takes over till 4 a.m.

Looking at the list of artists on the roster, I don’t recognize much by name, but GlobalFEST does have a promotional website with sample tracks. The musicians run the gamut–from trance DJ Mercan Dede’s Turkish Secret Tribe to the hiphop beats of Cuban singer Raul Paz. I have listened with skepticism and admit I’m intrigued. Not once did I feel like I was just waiting for a table at Chi-Chi’s.

The three stages have been designed to suit the varying needs of the artists–a formal concert space, a cabaret theater and a club space. Bragin says this was done specifically to counteract the problem of presenting this music in inappropriate venues. The set-up will also work out nicely for the spectators. "If people want to come and dance all night they can, if they want a formal concert they can have that, if they want to sit and have a cocktail and see a show they can do that too," he says.

GlobalFEST has an ulterior motive, piggybacking on the fact that the Association of Performing Arts Presenters is in town en force for their annual conference. Some of these artists will hopefully catch their attention and perhaps build national tours based on this performance. That’s all good for us, since it probably helped attract prime talent to the event. Just be prepared for a certain volume of conferencers bearing nametags.

For his part, Bragin’s hoping to chase off a few of the stereotypes that dog the genre. "That’s one of the reasons why we’re doing as large and diverse an event as we are, so people can see that world music isn’t any one thing. Seeing a lot of music that you’re not familiar with and seeing how immediately it connects I think will do more for dispelling stereotypes than anything we can possibly say. It’s all in the experience itself."

Joseph Rupp Public Theater and Joe’s Pub, 425 Lafayette St. (Astor Pl.), 212-239-6200, 8, $40.