Thank you for stopping by our Kickstarter page!   As many of you may know ¡Globalquerque! is entering its 8th year of bringing the very best in World Music and Culture to New Mexico.  Our adventurous programming includes performers from across the globe from the legendary to the up-and-coming, the traditional to the most cutting-edge and just about everything in between. 

This year’s festival line-up is almost complete and we think it is a stunner.  It’ll feature: 

• The Big Spank (NM, USA)
• Bombino (Niger)
• Canteca de Macao (Spain)
• Daniel Kahn & The Painted Bird (Germany)
• La Familia Vigil (NM, USA)
• Bettye LaVette (USA)
• Los Gaiteros de San Jacinto (Colombia)
• Ali Akbar Moradi Ensemble (Kurdistan, Iran)
• R. Carlos Nakai Earth Sounds Ensemble (Navajo-Ute/Mongolia/ UK)
• Ozomatli (USA)
• Plena Libre (Puerto Rico)
• Te-Coca & Wange 

  Nègès

   (Haiti)  
• Zeb & Haniya (Pakistan)

and there are still a few more slots to fill too!

Visit the ¡Globalquerque! web site to enjoy videos and background from each of these artists.

More than JUST a festival

¡Globalquerque! is not just a music festival.  While we don’t like to beat people over the head with a message, the festival is an opportunity to embrace the similarities and differences in people from around the world.  It’s a chance to experience their art and culture, to have real interactions and conversations with people from countries that we usually encounter through one-sided news stories.  This year we’ll have performances and workshops with Tuaregs from Niger, Kurdish artists from Iran, a female-fronted Pakistani ensemble and freewheeling dance music from Haiti.

Free Community Programs

These experiences happen in performances, but they also happen during our free Global Fiesta – a full day of workshops and discussions, dance lessons, hands-on crafts, interactive instrument play and more.  It’s a great place for adults to get a larger context on the performances and kids to get their first tastes of world culture.  And that is completely free.

Another place where kids get introduced to world culture is our annual school-day minifest.  Local school kids are invited to the NHCC to enjoy a mini-¡Globalquerque! featuring two of the festival’s artist.  This year’s featured artists will be Zeb & Haniya and Ozomatli.

Compelling Personal Stories

Every festival performer has a story that is worth digging into and exploring.  Here are just a few from the groups doing the free school show:

As a female-fronted Pakistani ensemble, Zeb & Haniya have paved the way for women performers across Central Asia.  They write original tunes and new arrangements for traditional songs from Pakistan, Afghanistan and beyond, which are sung in Farsi, Turkish, Pashto and English.  Their video for Bibi Sanam Janem has over 2.5 million views. Their US visit is the culmination of two years of work that involved festival co-director Neal Copperman’s visiting Pakistan as part of a State Department sponsored cultural exchange program.  Look for their tour debut at the Kennedy Center to be streamed live on September 12.  (Dinner with Zeb & Haniya are one of our pledge options!)

We have long dreamed of hosting Los Angeles-based Latin culture-mashers Ozomatli at the festival.  While negotiating their performance, festival co-director Tom Frouge learned of the impending release of Ozokids (officially to be released days after ¡Globalquerque) and invited them to perform for the youth of Albuquerque while they are here.  Everyone is guaranteed to enjoy watching Ozomatli reimagine their trademark swirl of styles and genres -- dancehall, merengue, rock steady, rock, hip hop, to name a few—for the children of 21st century, multi-racial urban America.

R. Carlos Nakai is the undisputed master of the Native American flute.  He’s long pushed in a variety of directions, collaborating with Hawaiian performers and free jazz ensembles.  In his newest project, he teams up with digeridoo master Stephen Kent (returning for his third straight festival visit) and musicians from Mongolia, to create a whole new sonic palette.  They will be leading a discussion on cross cultural collaborations and a throat singing workshop during the free Global Fiesta.

Be a part of our Journey!

There are dozens of stories to be told, and people will create hundreds of their own when they participate in ¡Globalquerque! 2012.  Hopefully we'll see you at some of the festival programs in New Mexico, but if you aren't able to join us in person, visit us on-line September 21 and 22 to enjoy live festival broadcasts.  Please consider pledging your support to help us continue to make portions of the festival free and to help cover the costs of bringing hundreds of performers to New Mexico each year to participate in our cross cultural celebration.

Buying festival tickets and merchandise is easy and you can find out all the info about ticket purchases here.  We wanted to make the Kickstarter campaign a little different then just offering an alternative method for buying what is already available for sale.  Obviously, we encourage you to get tickets and join us, but hope you will find some of the pledge options interesting too.