The 21st annual Lotus World Music and Arts Festival kicks off Thursday night, and a new director is heading the Bloomington event.
What's new about this year? Only three of the 25 acts are returning artists. The festival is bringing back a favorite stage spot on Fourth and Grant Streets.
That stage has been a favorite because it's on a slope and provides a good view for attendees even from the back of the venue.
And, brand new director Sunni Faas is leading Lotus this year.
Faas says Lotus is a special festival for her – in fact, when she was a student at Indiana University, she wrote her dissertation about it. Now as the director, Faas hopes to carry on the tradition of the longest-running world music festival in the country.
"Lotus not only brings in people from multiple countries and multiple cultures it's also very generationally diverse," Faas says. "We have everything from little kids in the park to people in their eighties dancing in the tents. The crowd is usually a good mix of community and campus so it really brings together everyone from Bloomington in a really great way."
Bloomington Lotus Festival's first concert is tonight at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater and features bands from Hungary and Italy.