Glorious Global Sounds

World Music Festival

The Chicago World Music Festival, the largest and longest-running event of its kind in the US, returns to the Windy City from September 21-27, and locals and visitors can once again get to foot-tapping with the crème of the traditional and contemporary global crop at myriad venues across the city. What do we like more than a fab concert? The answer is, over 35 free fab concerts, and luckily for us (and you), all performances will be open to the public entirely sans ticket price for the very first time in the event’s history.

Highly anticipated acts this year include soulful Malian-born songstress Fatoumata Diawara and wild ‘desert rockers’ Terakaft, who hail from the Saharan plains of Tuareg in North Africa. Past favourites like Beijing folk-meets-punk group Hanggai and New York’s Balkan brass funksters Slavic Soul Party return, and after all that the festival culminates in the ‘One World Under One Roof’ closing night show at the Chicago Cultural Centre. There’s a full lineup and performance schedule available online, plus nifty interactive neighbourhood maps to help you get around. While you’re in town, it would be downright rude not treat your tastebuds to some cultural appreciation too, so be sure to head to vibey Catalan hotspot Mercat a la Planxa, which is located just a short skip away from the CCC, and open for breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. Ole!