World Music Festival Chicago

Chicago’s World Music Festival returned in 2022 for its 22nd year of live, in-person performances, presenting three dozen artists at 11 venues between September 30 and October 9. Programmed by the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, this free fest allowed audiences to happily explore the sounds of 22 countries and regions of the world.

But more than the music is showcased – Chicago's unique neighbourhoods distinctively frame the musical offerings. Schubas Tavern, the intimate backroom of a brick-and-masonry neo-Gothic landmark in the northside Lakeview neighborhood, was the perfect setting for Romani tunes and vintage Balkan pop songs. These came courtesy of New York-based Eva Salina, blessed with a luscious, velvety voice, paired with the playful improvisations of Peter ‘Perica’ Stan, a masterful Serbian/Romanian Roma accordionist. The gritty, divey Reggie’s Music Joint in the near southside, packed to the rafters, became a Latin mosh pit when the Gama Brothers – aka the dynamic leaders of Son Rompe Pera from Mexico City’s outskirts – howled and banged the marimba-based cumbia smack into urban garage punk territory.

Mardi Gras Indian brass band Cha Wa shared the euphoric grooves of New Orleans at the Lake Stage in Navy Pier, an iconic space once a WWI pilot training centre and now a tourism and entertainment hub. Cha Wa belted out, ‘Hey now! Hey now! Iko iko wan dey Jock-a-mo fi no wan an dey Jock-a-mo fi na ney!’ as the pier’s Ferris Wheel and surrounding Lake Michigan glistened in the background. This Mardis Gras chant is of mysterious origins and unknown meaning, yet the audience got the message loud and clear. And on that perfectly sunny day, we jumped up off our picnic blankets in the grass and closed Chicago’s World Music Fest in proper style: swaying and bouncing to Cha Wa’s expression of unbounded joy.