Long before the term singer-songwriter was coined, Lotus Dickey (1911-1989) wrote songs and sang them. He also played old-time fiddle.

This southern Indiana farmer so endeared himself to the music community in Bloomington that each fall there is a huge music festival that brings musicians from all over the planet to downtown Bloomington. This year is the 20th Lotus World Music & Arts Festival.

Though the festival spans five days, the heart of the event occurs the evenings of Sept. 27 and 28.

Thirty-one ensembles will perform. Among the places represented are Norway, India, Mongolia, Corsica, Ireland, Colombia, the Ukraine, Mexico, Quebec and the United States. Sept. 27 features a showcase of African music.

Thanks to corporate underwriting, the cost of admission is reasonable. A wristband allows visitors to come and go between the festival’s seven venues located within a few blocks of each other. Along with two outdoor stages, the venues include a theater, three churches and a nightclub. All but one venue is open to all ages.

Because most performers play more than once, you can comfortably see a lot of acts, even though several artists are performing simultaneously. And if you take a great fancy to one group in particular, you can often see them play a completely different set at some other time. On the afternoon of Sept. 28, six of the ensembles perform at a free event in a downtown park.

While there will certainly be music that’s familiar, you can expect to be surprised. Despite the huge number of things going on, this is a very pleasant and manageable festival. Musically, it’s dazzling.

To give a sense of the range of different music you can expect, here are a few of this year’s performers. The artist roster page of the festival’s website (www.lotusfest.org) will give you a complete listing.

Frigg is a seven-piece Finnish-Norwegian band that brings a fresh approach to Scandinavian fiddling traditions that incorporates American and Irish traditions too.

Debo Band is an 11-piece group that plays Ethiopian pop music—combining African styles with American soul and funk and Eastern European brass band music.

Pacific Curls is a trio of women who blend Scottish folk and Pacific Island musics.

Arga Bileg is seven-piece group that uses Western jazz to explore their traditional Mongolian music.

The Janusz Prusinowski Trio play fiery and energetic village music from Poland.

Nomadic Massive, a Montreal-based collective, raps in English, French, Creole, Spanish, and Arabic, and they combine live instrumentation with sampling.

Kardemimmit comprises four young female singers who all play the Finnish national instrument — the kantele.