TORONTO - This year's Small World Music Festival runs Sept. 20th-30th, 2012 over 11 days featuring 30 acts from 10 different countries and across 6 venues. We're excited! Are you?

The opening party is once again FREE. As a gesture to you, our musically-inclined community, we're happy to offer an evening of great music, dancing and community-spirited fun at Lula Lounge on Thursday the 20th. Last year's 10th Anniversary bash was crammed and we hope to generate the same level of enjoyment this time out and set the stage for a great 10-day run. To do so, we've assembled a superb combination of artists that will fill the dance floor with Afro-Cuban rhythms married to rock attitude; with funky New Orleans-meets-Balkan jazz; and with sinuous worldly grooves. Details below.

• Tickets are on sale now for all events, from Fanfare Ciocarlia on the 21st to the Brazilian Blend closing party and you'll save by buying in advance. • Tickets for all events are available now at the newly refurbished Small World website, Facebook, iPhone and Android mobile apps.

Small World's signature annual program has grown into a key celebration of world music in Toronto. We've developed alongside the burgeoning diversity of our city, sharing heritage with communities and engaging audiences as together we discover artists and sounds old and new. As the festival enters its second decade, we're proud of our work in helping weave the thread of world music through Toronto's cultural fabric.

Small World Music presents

Small World Festival Launch Party with The Battle of Santiago with Lady Son & Rambunctious & DJ medicineman Lula Lounge, 1585 Dundas Street West Thursday, September 20th | Doors 8:00pm with show at 9:00pm

• Free Event

The Battle of Santiago, currently at the top of the international charts, blends Afro-Cuban rhythms, screaming rock guitars, dub bass lines with soaring horns and flutes. Exploring the boundaries of rhythm and sound, The Battle of Santiago is a unique sound experience, that carefully walks the border of rock and world music to develop what they call Afro-Cuban Post-Rock.

The Battle of Santiago combines strong Latin rhythms with deeply cultured Canadian influences, capturing each musicians own personal sound and style. Each musician has full freedom to express themselves individually as well as improvise to allow for organic growth, they find a natural feeling with each composition. These guys know music, and it shows. Catch The Battle of Santiago in an intimate setting at Lula Lounge our launch of the 11th Annual Small World Music Festival September 20th, or at Small World in the Square September 22nd.

ram-bunc-tious (adj) Noisy, very active, and hard to control, usually as a result of excitement or youthful energy. Nine horns + one drummer = dance party. Toronto rabble-rouser Michael Louis Johnson leads jams of swing, funk, balkan-beat and more.

DJ medicineman Indo-Arabic dub to Afro-Latin funk - sets flow seamlessly from soothing ancient rhythms and textures through rippling primitive & progressive beats. Sets always challenge cultural boundaries & musical traditions. This genre-bending mixology has generated a massive throng of listeners locally and internationally over the airwaves and on the dance floors.

Fanfare Ciocarlia & Lemon Bucket Orkestra - Gypsy Brass Party The Hoxton, 69 Bathurst Street Friday, September 21st | Doors 7:00pm with show at 8:00pm $30 Advance, $40 Door

You’ve never heard a brass band like this! Fanfare Ciocarlia is one of the world’s greatest live bands, truly keeping the gypsy spirit alive. This extraordinarily fast and feisty 12 piece brass band from Romania perform with Toronto’s own, Balkan Klezmer Gypsy Party-Punk Super Band Lemon Bucket Orkestra at The Hoxton, Friday September 21st.

These kings of gypsy brass started out playing weddings and baptisms in the isolated village of Zece Prajini in northeastern Romania, and since have played a marathon number of shows, with more than 1200 of high-energy concerts in fifteen years. Their sound has been sampled, covered, championed, and emulated by DJs, bands, and music aficionados.

Super speedy trumpets, horns, tubas, clarinets, saxophones, thumping bass and percussion of the traditional gypsy sound fused with diverse and new sounds make Fanfare Ciocarlia a truly unique band! Don’t miss the uproarious Roman gypsy party of the year during the 11th Annual Small World Music Festival.