5:30 p.m. — Maybe it was a ghost in broad daylight, but Elvis Presley stood resplendent in a classic white jumpsuit at the corner of Kirkwood and Walnut just as the crowds began to gather Friday evening for the first of two Lotus Festival showcase nights. Who knew he was a world music fan?

6:20 p.m. — A purple dinosaur strolled down the sidewalk past Uptown Cafe alongside a quartet of black cats, all female. Lotus, in regard to costuming, looks more like Mardi Gras with each passing year.

7:25 p.m. — Early in Scots Gaelic singer Julie Fowlis’ set at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater, a baby was crying. Fowlis’ husband, bouzouki player Eamon Doorley, came to the microphone and intoned: “I know how you feel.” Doorley was just being customarily jocular and the baby was in a distinct minority, as Fowlis and her band produced smiles galore and a standout ovation before they were through.

8:35 p.m. — Sweat and sound were both flying at the Mallor Clendenning Grodner and Bohrer Tent on Fourth Street as Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band preached honest-to-God primitive country blues to a multitude of sinners.

Called back for an encore, the Rev, drummer and brother Jayme Peyton and the Rev’s wife and washboard player Breezy Peyton tore into a call-and-response song called “Two Bottles of Wine.” At one point, the good Reverend’s guitar sound cut out from the PA, but then kicked back in. The Rev smiled. Divine intervention.

8:45 p.m. — Spain’s LaMusgana, a brilliant multi-instrumental quartet from Castilla, got the Convention Center crowd nodding appreciatively to a processional followed by a frenetic dance tune, with Jaime Munoz breaking out the bagpipes. The tune wound down with fiddler Diego Galaz and accordionist Jorge Arribas trading licks then indulging in not just one, but two, false endings -- the first of which prompted Galaz to hold out a flat hand to stop the premature applause. When the final applause did come, it was sustained and sincere.

— Andy Graham