Ten years of Lotus

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Ten years of Lotus
by Jim Manion Sep 24, 2003

Indiana’s one-of-a-kind music festival this week

Now in its 10th year, the Lotus World Music and Arts Festival has grown into an event that reflects the spirit of Bloomington as much as the Jazz and Heritage Festival reflects the spirit of New Orleans. Lotus Festival director Lee Williams considers the festival “not only a great musical event, it’s the highlight of many people’s year. It has such a positive vibe behind it as a community event with international spirit.” The Lotus Festival runs this year from Sept. 25 to Sept. 28 on the streets and in the venues of downtown Bloomington.

Laura Love is a favorite at Lotus. She returns this year, sporting a new CD.

What’s in store for Lotus 2003? Besides the usual great mix of artists from around the corner and around the world, there are some special features for this 10th anniversary festival. Kicking off the festival weekend on Friday night, as always, is the Lotus Dickey Tribute, in honor of the partial namesake of the festival (the other being the lotus flower, which grows around the world). Lotus Dickey was a songwriter from Orange County, Ind., who was much revered by the area’s old-time music community. While his music and spirit is feted each year, Williams wanted something special for his 10th festival. “We’ve re-fashioned the Lotus Dickey tribute to put a better spotlight on it. We’ve moved it to our biggest venue, the Buskirk-Chumley Theater. And, where before it has featured area musicians who were close to Lotus Dickey, this year we’re adding some of our visiting artists to it. Bruce Molsky, John Doyle and The Mammals will be performing Lotus Dickey songs sent to them by Grey Larsen. “It turns out that Bruce Molsky had actually met Lotus Dickey at a festival before he died,” Williams continues. “The Mammals knew of Lotus Dickey and John Doyle is an old-time music nut, so he’s excited about it. It’s going to be a more prominent way of recognizing Lotus Dickey’s inspiration to us all.” Another special event to celebrate 10 years of Lotus Festival is the Thursday, Sept. 25 “Lotus Retro” night. According to Williams, “In our 10th year we wanted to offer something inexpensive, so I revived the concept of the original festival for one night — three venues for $10. It was a bargain back then and it’s really a bargain now.” If you move fast on Thursday, for that $10 you can catch eight distinctly different performances. The Buskirk-Chumley Theater will feature the contemporary Spanish songs of Marla del Mar Bonet, the French Canadian folk-fusion of Vishten and the South African mbaqanga of Mahotella Queens. The Monroe Bank tent will feature Cape Breton Island folk with The Cottars, blues, gospel and R&B from The Holmes Brothers and Donna the Buffalo’s jammy mix of old-time, Cajun and rock. The John Waldron Arts Center Auditorium will feature the French a cappella of Paroplapi and Jan Yrgagy, a performer of traditional music from Kyrgyzstan. All this happens the night before the full-blown festival kicks in. Friday and Saturday’s showcases run from 7 p.m. to midnight, spread between nine stages. Four outdoor tents will be set up on Kirkwood Avenue, Fourth Street and two downtown parking lots. Five indoor stages showcase artists concurrently at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater, The Bloomington Convention Center, First Christian Church, First United Methodist Church and the John Waldron Arts Center Auditorium. Some of the international artists visiting this year’s Lotus Festival are Maraca (Cuban salsa, son and timba), John Doyle & John Williams (Celtic traditional), Taller de Compas (Spanish gypsy flamenco), Cool Crooners (swing and jazz vocals from Zimbabwe), Omar Bashir (classical Arabic music of Iraq), Alessandra Belloni (Southern Italian folk) and Drum Drum (contemporary Pacifica from Papua New Guinea). Among those representing American traditions on Friday and Saturday are the Laura Love Duo (folk-funk), Rosie Flores (rockabilly and country), Honeyboy Edwards (country blues), Tom Paxton (folk), the Kevin Locke Trio (Native American music and dance) and singer-songwriter Tracy Grammer. A complete and updated schedule can be found online at www.lotusfest.org. Other special (and free) events during Lotus Festival weekend include a children’s concert with Tom Paxton, “Latin Lotus — For Children” (a bilingual storytelling and music program at the Monroe County Public Library) and a Sunday afternoon “World Spirit Concert” with Tracy Grammer, Paroplapi and Cool Crooners. Local artists will have a chance to learn from visiting artists at workshops with Mahotella Queens, Jan Yrgagy, Omar Bashir and Kevin Locke. There will also be Lotus Street Parades on Kirkwood Friday night at 8:30 and Saturday night at 8:15. Reflecting on the festival’s 10th anniversary, Lee Williams said, “I’m very proud of what we originally created and how close it is to what we still are: a community-based, multiple-venue world music festival with intimate stages. It’s changed in size and number of artists but it’s really still the same event.” The world has changed considerably since 1994’s inaugural Lotus Festival, especially since Sept. 11, 2001. This impacts Williams’ work of lining up artists for the festival more than it does the festival schedule itself. Visa arrangements are more time-consuming due to heightened security measures. The booking and availability of artists is hampered by more than that, especially since the U.S. invasion of Iraq last March. According to Williams, “This war has created a lot of ill will towards the U.S. from musicians around the world, especially Middle Eastern and African artists. Many of them feel uncomfortable coming to the United States. Since the war began a lot of tours have been cancelled. “There’s two sides to every story and outside the U.S. there’s a strong feeling our military actions were and are inappropriate. One of the ways the world’s artists are protesting that is by simply not coming over here. They are also shrewdly aware of security and visa issues in terms of an intense scrutiny. Artists and their managers I’ve spoken to who have dealt with this have found it humiliating. There are too many stories of artists being treated roughly going for their visas. There is also a fear of racial profiling and the worst-case scenario of mistaken identity leading to a nightmare of imprisonment that just wasn’t there before Sept. 11, 2001.” Williams continues, “All this makes me respect the artists who are still trying to come to the U.S. under these difficult circumstances. In other years we may have had three or four more international artists in our schedule, but with something like 34 acts booked for this year’s Lotus Festival, your average Lotus attendee isn’t even going to notice.”

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