Weekly Report from Boulder
This past weekend was the Global Groove Festival in Denver. Kudos to Performance International, organizers of the LoDo summer music festival for making this happen. It was not as well attended as anybody would have loved to see but the people that did make it out had a great time.

Two stages of great music ran Friday evening and Saturday from Noon to Midnight. I had a great time dancing to Los Mocosos and DJ Cheb I Sabbah, savoring the unique sound of the Denver based Gamelan Tunas Mekar, and seeing new formations of some of the great international performers who live locally like gypsy and more group Jurjuna. At one point I was bouncing back and forth between the two stages as I'd introduced Denver based Moroccan player Rachid Halihal in the tent then it was off to the other stage to chat briefly with David Lindley before introducing him to the crowd. How fascinating that Rachid drew the bigger audience of those sets!

We're very much hoping to see this festival grow into an annual event. I enjoyed seeing the great mix of the crowd! Denver really does have a lot of different ethnicities and it's not so common to be in one place where you see so many people of different backgrounds get together. Peace and understanding through music!

Friday morning when I was coming in to work I thought, you know, America is a great country when the day after Ray Charles dies, we have our flags at half-mast. Ray Charles was a true original, a wonderful and unique voice. He will be missed.

Elaine C. Erb. KGNU Music Director. <º))))><
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