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The autumnal equinox isn't until early Sunday morning, but the kickoff to the fall music season comes tonight and Saturday at Albuquerque's National Hispanic Cultural Center.

Whether you want to see the queen of the blues, Koko Taylor, or Kathak dancers from India or a mix of folk ballads and electronic dance music from Italy, it will be on display at the third annual September festival.

And if you can't afford $35 tickets to the evening concerts, the fest on Saturday afternoon offers free workshops — where you can make a bamboo flute, create Chinese puppets or learn to hoop dance — and a "global village," featuring exotic food and folk art and crafts.

City music liaison Tom Frouge, who created Globalquerque with Neal Copperman of AMP Concerts, said atmosphere spread across the cultural center's campus has grown into a full-fledged event in itself in the third year.

"We like to say that last year was kind of a global 'settlement,' and now it's a global village," Frouge said.

And the daytime events tie into that, he said. "This year I think we have a stellar lineup of workshops. They're very diverse."

Starting at 6 each night, concerts overlap among three venues: on the main outdoor stage, in the main concert hall and at an outdoor cafe.

Taylor, the Chicago blues legend, is tonight's headliner. On Saturday on the outdoor stage, former Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart unleashes his Global Drum Project, which also features Zakier Hussain of India, Giovanni Hidalgo of Puerto Rico and Nigerian percussionist Sikiru Adepoju.

Frouge said the headliners give the event a little more star power and broad-based appeal.

"We upped the ante a little by going with Koko Taylor and Mickey Hart," Frouge said. "There's interest in both of those artists that normally wouldn't be there for a global music festival."

Taylor and Hussain have been fellows with National Endowment for the Arts, which is marking the 25th anniversary of its Fellowship Heritage program and has included Globalquerque among its designated events this year.

Frouge feels a bigger buzz for Globalquerque this year, not just in Albuquerque but from media in cities in neighboring states — Boulder, Durango, Tucson and Austin. He said the goal is to be a unique destination event in the Southwest — "the Telluride of world music."

One of last year's popular acts, the Red Stick Ramblers, released an EP that included "Keep Your Hands Off It," a song recorded last year at Globalquerque, Frouge said.

He handicapped a few of the other performers:

• Puerto Plata, primarily 83-year-old guitarist José Manuel Cobles of the Dominican Republic, is at home with various forms of music: bolero, ranchera and bachata. "It's not a stretch to say that Puerto Plata are the Buena Vista Social Club of the Dominican Republic," Frouge said.

• Baka Beyond is a hybrid of musicians from England and the rain forests of Cameroon. "It's like putting Fairport Convention behind a bunch of pygmies," Frouge said.

• Dragon Art Studio from China will conduct a daytime workshop and will perform with its rod puppets Saturday evening.

• Fiamma Fumana from Italy feature female vocalists reimagining traditional ballads, Celtic influences and modern electronica. Frouge said he's not quite sure what to expect when they perform Saturday night.

• Frouge said Albuquerque's Anexo al Norte has been touring with the popular Los Tigres del Norte and are on a track to be one of the next big things from the Duke City, the norteño Shins: "This is one of the bands from Albuquerque that is making it, much like Soular is making it in alt-rock."

Frouge said part of Globalquerque's mission is to not only offer music from the far reaches of the planet but to present music from our backyard in a different mix.

"If people that are into global music see Anexo in the context of a global music stage," he reasoned, "it's being presented in a new way. They'll say, 'That's cool.' "

Globalquerque offers "that sense of discovery," he said.

"Neal and I's vision is to expose people to things they normally wouldn't be exposed to," Frouge said. "That could be a band from Tibet or Anexo al Norte, from right here in Albuquerque."