Lee Williams, director of the Lotus Education & Arts Foundation, Inc., which puts on the Lotus World Music & Arts Festival. Williams, 50, and his staff are putting the finishing touches on the 14th festival, which will be held September 27-30. (Charlie Nye for The Star)

Lee Williams is the Executive director and artistic director for the Lotus World Music & Arts Festival.

Born into a military family, Lee Williams grew up in Indiana, Alabama, Texas, California, South Dakota, England and Spain.

He acknowledges that time spent overseas may have helped prepare him for the job he holds today -- executive director and artistic director for the Lotus World Music & Arts Festival.

But before co-founding Lotus in 1994, Williams worked for more than a decade as a talent buyer for Bloomington nightclubs Second Story and Jake's.

"I wanted to book the artists I had records by," he says. "I was never a mainstream person. I didn't have Bruce Springsteen records. I had oddball music."

Williams' adventurous streak carries over to the 14th edition of Lotus, which will present musicians from countries such as Slovenia, Tunisia and India, Thursday through Sept. 30 in downtown Bloomington.

If a music fan hasn't taken the time to explore world music, why is it important to at least be exposed to that?

It's great music. We don't just bring anybody to perform at Lotus. We bring artists who are doing unique things within their culture or their traditional music -- innovative things. We bring really talented and interesting musicians, whether they're from Kazakhstan or New Orleans or Winnipeg. It's something that anybody with an open mind toward music would appreciate.

Exposure to other people's music just broadens your horizons. When the musicians come here, they talk about where they're from and why they perform this music. They explain the instruments they play. You can learn a lot.

In the context of what's going on now around the world with war and terrorism, it's nice to see that people are people no matter where they're from. Music can be the bridge that takes you to that great realization.

As a youngster, you lived in England for eight years and Spain for three. How did those experiences shape your interest in music?

I was living in other countries and in other cultures. I was watching television and absorbing all of those influences. I have a picture of me in this flamenco outfit when I'm about 7 years old. I remember going to street festivals in Seville and Zaragoza in Spain and listening to the castanets. All of that is deeply ingrained in me.

How did you make your way to Bloomington?

After graduating from high school in New Albany, I went to IU-Southeast for a year and a half. Some of my friends from high school had come to IU-Bloomington, and I came up to see a Who concert here -- everything in my life has revolved around music. Before the concert, I went to see my friend in a dorm. Basically, every door was open and music was blasting from these rooms. It was probably 1977. I thought, "This is the greatest thing. All of these people here have different music than I do. I really want to come back." I enrolled the next semester.

Are you a musician yourself?

No. I tried three different times to play three different instruments: Guitar, piano and trumpet. I actually played trumpet in high school band, but I was so terrible that I gave up after a year. I just don't have the patience and discipline for it.

Who attends your festival?

We have the greatest demographic of all time. It's young people, it's senior citizens, it's people of color, it's women, and it's college students and a lot more high school students now.

People latched onto Lotus so powerfully. It was a humbling experience after the first year. I felt like whatever I did, I couldn't screw it up. The goal for the rest of my life was to keep that first-year magic. That's still my focus. I'm completely aware of how deeply passionate people feel about Lotus and how they anticipate it.

*The downtown, multi-venue setting for Lotus was a way to stretch your budget in the early years. In retrospect, it seems to have been a stroke of genius.*

Most folk and world music festivals take place outdoors in a large green space or park. There are one or two or three stages. But people like our format, and that's what creates the energy and excitement. Moving from one distinctive venue to another -- a church to a nightclub to a theater to a tent -- provides completely different environments with completely different music.

It's also the idea that you don't know most of these artists. Normally, in the business of music, that's a complete liability. But it's not in this case. People want to discover music, which is why I tend not to repeat artists. This year, we have two repeats out of the 23 artists.

What did you discover about world music when you made the transition from hiring bands to play nightclubs to overseeing the festival?

I had booked world music at Jake's and Second Story, but it was known as folk music or modern folk or fusion folk. I had done a lot of Irish music and a lot of Americana roots music, plus some Nordic, African and salsa. It wasn't a regular thing, but it was there.

When I got involved with Lotus, it was very easy for me to do some research on the giant gaps in music from other cultures. My own interests were European, because I had lived in Europe. I figured out how to use all the connections I had made in the music business to get some of these national and international touring artists to this brand-new, nobody-knows-who-we-are world music event.

We booked 14 artists that first year. I think our budget was $5,000 for the artist fees. I asked (former John Mellencamp violin player) Lisa Germano to be part of the lineup. She said, "Well, I'm not world music." I said, "Yes, you are." For me, I could book anything under the banner of "world music." I think people have preconceptions. It's international music.

I like the concept of "international folk music.

If you research the phrase "world music" online, you will get a headache. Even the people who use the term hate the term. It's totally meaningless. It's a retailer's term. "We need a marketing term so we can put this CD in a record store under a certain name."

What's the festival's operating budget for 2007?

Roughly $200,000. We really can't program the festival that we want. We program the festival that is available.

In other words, I'm working and working to convince artists who are touring to come to Bloomington. And it is a hard sell, not because they don't know Lotus. Everyone in the world music business in North America knows Lotus. But we still don't have much money.

We were lucky to get someone like Mexican vocalist Lila Downs (in 2000) before she became really well-known. We can't afford her now. Sometimes we have to cajole and convince artists to come for maybe less money than they would make in Chicago or bigger markets. It's tough. You have to use all your history and experience to get people here.