National Geographic Music (National Geographic)

Albuquerque, New Mexico will play host to the third edition of the annual ¡Globalquerque! festival, a weekend-long celebration of world music and culture taking place Sept. 21-22, 2007. The festival will be held in the National Hispanic Cultural Center (NHCC) and will present acts from five continents on three distinct stages over two days plus dance, films, and free family activities.

This year's festival will include performances from blues singer Koko Taylor, Mickey Hart's Global Drum Project—featuring tabla virtuoso Zakir Hussain (pictured), legendary conga player Giovanni Hidalgo and master African drummer Sikiru Adepoju SIKIRU—and Tibetan chanteuse Yungchen Lhamo.

Other acts include Afro-Colombian legend Petrona Martinez, Senegalese kora master Lankandia Cissoko, Cameroonian-Celtic Pygmy fusionistas Baka Beyond, Northern Italian ethno-electro outfit Fiamma Fumana, legendary Dominican bachata artist Puerto Plata, Lakota/Anishinabe flute player and hoop dancer Kevin Locke and NEA fellowship recipient Anjani's Kathak Dance of India,

In addition to these international artists, the festival will again present representative artists from New Mexico's varied musical traditions. The festival will reprise its popular Global Village, with food, crafts, dance and music from around the world and across New Mexico, plus a foreign film series, educational workshops, free day programming on Saturday, and a weeklong, statewide celebration of international culture leading up to the festival.

The event will again take place at the National Hispanic Cultural Center, an unique arts complex encompassing 50 acres on the Rio Grande River. A staggered schedule will allow music lovers to sample the broadest range of performances in a variety of settings and ambiances, from the intimate Salón Ortega Fountain Courtyard to the state-of-the-art 691-seat Albuquerque Journal Theatre to the Plaza Mayor outdoor festival concert stage.

Founded by AMP Concerts and Avokado Artists, in collaboration with the City of Albuquerque and the National Hispanic Cultural Center (NHCC), the inaugural 2005 ¡Globalquerque! event was an affiliated showcase of the Western Arts Alliance Conference and featured thirteen international and local performing groups (over 100 performers) on three stages in one night at the NHCC. The event created a national and international buzz and was attended by notable presenters, agents and record labels from all over the country. In 2006 ¡Globalquerque! expanded into a two-day festival with an attendance of over 4000, and added a film series, a global village of music, culture and cuisine, and satellite events in communities across New Mexico.

For additional information on this year's ¡Globalquerque! festival—including showtimes, ticketing and artist updates—please consult the festival's website.