California WorldFest, Finger Lakes GrassRoots Festival, Vancouver Folk Fest Taking Place This Weekend

World music lovers around North America have some great options for amazing live music this weekend. Up Canada way, the Vancouver Folk Music Festival has all sorts of great stuff, from desert blues band Etran Finatawa to Abigail Washburn's Sparrow Quartet, featuring Bela Fleck.

Over in Northern California, the California WorldFest has a seriously impressive lineup, including amazing Haitian songstress Emeline Michel, Ivorian diva Dobet Gnahore, and Latin Rock superstars Ozomatli.

And lastly, Upstate New York offers up the Finger Lakes GrassRoots Festival. This is actually the festival that I work for (my "day job", if you will), so I'm entirely biased. However, it is worth taking note of, if you're a world music lover - the aforementioned Etran Finatawa will be performing, as will Nigerian highlife group Toby Foyeh and Orchestra Africa, mbira player Samite of Uganda, and country-rocker Lucinda Williams.

There are also dozens of wonderful smaller concerts and festivals around the country, and I wish I could be at all of them at once! Don't you just love the summer?