Memorial Union is known for bringing artists from afar to share and perform for students and residents, but only once did it hold the weekend-long Madison World Music Festival.
This time around, committee members anticipate an even bigger success.
\I think we're going to grow a lot this year. We've really tried to increase the festival atmosphere,"" said Amanee Markos, UW-Madison's world music festival student coordinator.
While only in its second year, the MWMF is something that has been carefully planned for a long time. Ralph Russo, the cultural arts director for the Union, explains the process as beginning with a deep passion.
""For a number of years, several of us on campus have talked about how important it would be to find a way to build a world music audience,"" he said.
Russo and many others said they strongly believe in music, its representation through culture and the importance of integrating music and education.
Russo said the process for planning this fall's MWMF began last winter with the collaboration of members in Madison's community and with those in Chicago and Bloomington, Ind. as well. Together, they chose a combination of Afro-Indian, Mexican and Pakistani sounds in hopes that they will come together to form a musical extravaganza.
Tamir Muskat, a member of the band Balkan Beat Box, said that his band's Israeli/Middle Eastern sound is ""gypsy ... folk combined with electric music.""
The festival suffered one minor setback when headlining artist Seu Jorge, who was featured in the film ""The Life Aquatic,' arrived from Brazil sans instruments.
""Fortunately we were able to come across a set of Brazilian percussion instruments and we found the type of electric guitar they used,"" Markos said.
Markos, who helped recruit the Balkan Beat Box and other performers, said she feels that the festival is a perfect collaboration of culture and music.
She said she believes that the committee has chosen ""a balance of genre of music"" that will really appeal to a wide array of audiences.
Students and community members said they are excited to relax by the Terrace this weekend and listen to some different and mesmerizing sounds they cannot hear every day.
