If there exists a proper way to wrap up one’s summer and slowly descend into winter hibernation, it would probably involve Bloomington’s Lotus World Music and Arts Festival. Not to mark everything off of Chicago, but a few-hours’ trip will take you to the paradise, the Mecca even, of a global music village hosted in the very heart of Bloomington, Illinois.

Where else can you see Arga Bileg from Mongolia perform alongside Cuba’s Roberto Fonseca? How about DakhaBrakha with their Ukrainian ethno taking over from Kardemimmit’s gorgeous Finish kantele tunes? Amjad Ali Khan of India, Bassekou Kouyate and Ngoni Ba from Mali, Sonia M’Barek representing Tunis, and many more will take the stages of some ten venues between Wednesday and Sunday, September 25-29th.

All of this phenomenal music will go hand in hand with art exhibitions, show cases, outdoors performances, only to be highlighted by a Saturday morning parade and a Sunday afternoon World Spirit Concert.

Of course, WNUR will not miss out this opportunity to chat with a few of our favorites. Expect plenty of festival coverage throughout the weekend (our Twitter and Facebook pages are the places to go for this) and artist interviews shortly thereafter. In the days leading up to September 25th, we will feature the artists from the lineup on Continental Drift and some of your other favorite WNUR shows, but in the meantime, check out lotusfest.org.