The Department of Cultural Affairs has to work hard each year to drum up the money to put on Chicago’s World Music Festival, since the city generally ponies up only about 60 percent of its budget. For this tenth installment of the festival, organizer Michael Orlove and his two-person staff, Brian Keigher and Carlos Tortolero, soldiered on despite the rough economy and the loss of some key sponsors—most notably Borders, which in years past not only pitched in money but hosted many in-store performances. They’ve managed a budget and a schedule comparable in size to last year’s, though admittedly both were already somewhat diminished then.

Unfortunately, there’s little they can do about one of the biggest obstacles to booking music from outside the country: even if the budget holds steady, the dramatically depressed value of the dollar means it doesn’t buy as much. “It seems that the sheer number of groups touring during this time period is down,” says Orlove. “The dollar is weak everywhere, which means that our offers to these groups are less appealing.” Even some artists who could’ve flown free courtesy of longtime WMF sponsor United Airlines decided it would make more sense to tour elsewhere. Plenty of this year’s acts are traveling from Europe, Latin America, Africa, or central Asia, but even more of them are either from the States or have already moved here from their home countries.

As a result, though there’s plenty to recommend, overall the lineup’s less impressive than the previous few. Most noticeable is the uptick in the number of DJs—as good as some of their sets are sure to be, they’re still no substitute for a show by a working band from another culture. Orlove says he and his staff have struggled especially this year because the number of nonfestival bookings they’re responsible for—Summerdance, the Cultural Center, several series in Millennium Park—has increased. It might help take the edge off any disappointment you feel about the World Music Festival to consider their six Music Without Borders concerts at the Pritzker Pavilion this summer as an extension of the schedule. Now in its third year, the series included Orchestra Baobab, a showcase of Sudanese musicians and dancers, and the Pitchfork Music Festival preview with the Boban Markovic Orkestar, Extra Golden, A Hawk and a Hacksaw, and Fleet Foxes.

World Music Festival shows take place at 23 venues around the city, and except where noted they’re all-ages. Advance tickets to events with admission fees are usually available from the venues; for more information call the city’s World Music Festival hotline at 312-742-1938, see cityofchicago.org/worldmusic, or try the festival’s new MySpace page at myspace.com/chicagoworldmusic.

The show with Little Cow and Chicha Libre on Friday night at Martyrs’ will be broadcast live on WBEZ (91.5 FM), and the early weekday performances at the Chicago Cultural Center’s Claudia Cassidy Theater will air as part of Continental Drift on Northwestern University’s WNUR (89.3 FM). As it has for the past few years, the festival closes with “One World Under One Roof,” a free extravaganza that transforms the Cultural Center into a minifestival, with overlapping sets in three different halls inside the building.

By Peter Margasak