By Susan Kepecs

It doesn’t get any better than the Wisconsin Union Theater’s Madison World Music Festival (Sep. 13-15), which kicks off the fall season at the Memorial Union Terrace and the Union Theater. It’s an annual, free, all-out celebration of cultural resistance to Coca-Colonized pop-rock homogeneity. This year’s zippy lineup includes both traditionalists who refuse to give in and pioneers who revamp the family folklore with 21^st century world influences. Here are some highlights.

Dobet Gnahore, the fastest-rising star of the new Afropop generation, unleashes the spirits onstage at the Willy Street Fair (under the auspices of the MWMF, Sept. 15, 3:45 p.m.).