This global village speaks Yiddish --- Harbourfront's Ashkenaz likely one of this summer's top entertainment events

The three-day Ashkenaz festival this weekend celebrates new Yiddish culture, a giddy gathering of klezmer and jazz musicians, singers, poets, filmmakers, actors, storytellers, dance, visual arts, workshops, exhibits and food that should draw thousands to Harbourfront.

This is the fourth Ashkenaz festival, first mounted in 1995 and believed to be the largest mingling of its kind. Around 70,000 visited its last incarnation in 1999 - that ever-present arts nemesis, lack of funding, postponed last year's scheduled remount.

Festival artistic director Mitch Smolkin, himself an actor and performer, says this edition will have unity as its principal theme.

"It is a meditation on Jewish identity, what it means to be a Jew. This is needed because the Jewish world is more fragmented than it was in 1999. The festival draws on the past and the present to demonstrate a living, breathing Yiddish culture. It signifies wholeness and will put our deep diasporic culture in the spotlight.

"For non-Jews it offers a rare meeting of cultures and people as well as the chance to explore what it means to be human. After all, Ashkenaz is life-affirming. It is an opportunity to bridge the differences within the Jewish community and the community at large - so there's something beyond the initial appeal of the arts events themselves."

Ninety per cent of this vast array of entertainments is free.

Here's a look at some of the diverse music on show from Europe, the U.S., South America and Canada. This ranges from exotic jazz experiments to cabarets, to the traditional klezmer styles of eastern European Jewish celebratory music, to contrasting accompaniments for a Soviet-era silent movie, to wedding music that turns old-style nuptials into a hip-hop extravaganza.

If it's anywhere near as good as the hugely-stimulating, smash-hit '99 version, then Ashkenaz 2002, the global version of the small European village - the shtetl - should make any best-of-year entertainment list.

SATURDAY

Khevrisa, performing at 8 on the Concert Stage, is a quartet regarded as the leader in precise, traditional Klezmer music. Violinist Steven Greenman, violist Michael Alpert, bass Stuart Brotman and Zev Feldman on cimbalon (a dulcimer) are musicians at the forefront of the large-scale revival of this music. On Sunday they perform music that accompanied a pre-WWII European Jewish wedding. As well as dance it includes meditative introspection and ecstatic celebration, with Alpert the wedding jester who guides the emotions of participants.

Klezmer en Buenos Aires, triumphant in 1999, is the duo of Cesar Lerner on accordion and piano plus Marcelo Moguilevsky on clarinet and flutes. They combine elements of Argentinean folk, jazz, contemporary music and tango.

Next is Di Naye Kapelye from Hungary (making its first Canadian appearance), delivering enthusiastic Klezmer sounds like a Romanian field band of the 19th century. It's a five-member group specializing in authentic Hungarian and Romanian music, including well-regarded kontra fiddle player Antal Fekete and led by Bob Cohen, who handles violin, mandolin, flute and vocals.

At other stages Saturday you can hear distinctive New York pianist Anthony Coleman's Los Professionales, a trio that fuses jazz and Sephardic music comprising bass Brad Jones and percussionist Roberto Rodriguez. (Coleman will accompany the movie Jewish Luck on Sunday.) The duo of clarinettist Martin van de Ven and guitarist Brian Katz will release their new CD Collected Stories, which adds Armenian, Israeli and Bulgarian tunes to Klezmer classics and their own original tunes.

SUNDAY

Festival director Mitch Smolkin calls the noon-to-2 parade and pageant the heartbeat of the festival, as revellers, puppeteers, singers, dancers, musicians, stilt walkers and clowns trek through Harbourfront.

Winnipeg's Finjan is a leading Klezmer force in Canada, six musicians celebrating the 20th year of the band, two of whose albums were nominated for Junos.

Zoe B. Zak, a pianist-vocalist from New York, interprets Hebrew liturgical prayers with passion.

The Frank London All-Stars Brass Band is a booming affair, the trumpeter-leader known for his membership in the Klezmatics and Hasidic New Wave as well as a significant New York avant-garde presence.

Solomon and Socalled's HipHopKhasene makes its Canadian debut, its extraordinary output based on the talents of accordionist-pianist Josh Dolgin, violinist Sophie Solomon and clarinettist David Krakauer plus musical guests.

Toronto is represented by the wild spirits of the Flying Bulgar Klezmer band led by trumpeter and Ashkenaz co-founder David Buchbinder, singer Theresa Tova, the unique contemporary music of Beyond The Pale, whose Routes CD won critical acclaim, and Mideast-tinged Doula, withSufi devotional music from Islam. Winnipeg and (mostly) Toronto contribute to Both Ends Of The Earth, a quintet whose roots music is infused with jazz, r'n'b and folk.

Kurt and Annette Bjorling are a Klezmer pair: Annette is the world's only Klezmer harpist and Kurt plays clarinet. They're joined by fest chief Smolkin, who'll sing.

Yale Strom is a violinist, writer and filmmaker. His klezmer group Hot Pstromi delivers authentic music embellished with new melodies and Yiddish songs.

MONDAY

The Cracow Klezmer Band from Poland makes its mainstage Canadian debut (though on Sunday it delivers an alternate background to Jewish Luck) with a passionate post-modern sound that contains traditional Jewish, jazz and Balkan aspects. Its accomplished members are Jaroslaw Bester (accordion), Jaroslaw Tyrals (violin), Oleg Dyyak (accordion, percussion, clarinet) and Wojciech Front (bass).

Sons of Sepharad is three renowned singers from Morocco, Canada and the U.S. - Aaron Bensoussan, Gerard Edery and Alberto Mizrahi. In powerful voice they explore songs in Hebrew, Greek, Turkish, Arabic and other languages passed down from Spain's Golden Age.

Buchbinder's Shurum Burum bids to explore the creative process, using his compositions, nine or 11 musicians and two clown/acrobats (Jessica Barrera and Noah Kenneally) which he describes as a no-holds-barred work in progress "that will leave us all shocked and frizzed, puzzled and dazzled."

The Jewish Folk Choir and a sextet of female players perform the world premiere of the five-movement Dos Naye Lid for choir and ensemble, one of the last creations of Canadian composer Milton Barnes.

Boston's Klezperanto, led by ultra-lively Ilene Stahl on clarinet, turns Klezmer, zydeco, rockabilly and other ethnic sounds into a potent dance mix. They'll lead the hot freylekh (happy dance) finale.

And if you can't wait to belt out "Sunrise, Sunset" or "If I Were A Rich Man," there's a singalong performance of the movie Fiddler On The Roof starring Topol tonight on Harbourfront's Concert Stage for $10.

KLEZMER FAVOURITES: Di Naye Kapelye from Hungary, above, Sam Alpert, right and Cracow Klezmer Band, below.