15 years and bigger than ever.

Back in 1994, Lotus Fest had its first event in downtown Bloomington. Around 900 people came to see the inaugural event that consisted of one night of world folk music. These days the festival draws closer to 10,000 people with a total of four days and nights of music, workshops and Lotus in the Park.

The event was primarily launched by three people in the local music scene: James Combs, a local rock musician, Shahyar Daneshgar, a classical musician from Teheran who lived in Bloomington and Lee Williams, a booking agent and current director of the festival.

Renowned Indiana folk musician Lotus Dickey has been a big inspiration for the festival.

Each year the Lotus World Music and Arts Festival honors Lotus Dickey’s memory with various styles of music and workshops to help new generations of listeners hear his music.

Dickey was born in 1911 in Muncie. He later moved to southern Indiana on an Orange County farm outside of Paoli. Dickey was raised in a musical household which allowed him to flourish as a musician. The Indiana legend was a prolific performer and songwriter until his death in 1989.

The festival is partly named after him. It was also named Lotus because of the flower of the same name that grows all over the world and expresses beauty and universality.

This year’s event will have more than 25 international artists performing at eight downtown venues. On Friday and Saturday there will be festival processions led by marching bands. The Lotus Festival is created and produced by the nonprofit Lotus Education and Arts Foundation, with help from hundreds of volunteers.

This four-day festival requires a massive amount of planning and work.

No one knows that better than Lee Williams. One of the major players in getting Lotus started, he has been the director since 1996. He is practically the festival producer, overseeing everything to make sure all components are in place.

“There are thousands of things I have to do,” Williams said. “There are many things thought out to make the festival the best experience for our audience.”

Williams also said the Saturday night portion of the event is the largest part of the festival, with a much larger audience than at any other time during the four days.

“Friday is like a quiet opening night,” he said. “People who don’t want that crazy environment on Saturday can come on Friday.”

With the event now in its 15th year, traditions are starting to appear. Thursday has been the kickoff of the event for many years, and the World Spirit concert is close to becoming a tradition. The parades and Lotus in the Park have run in consecutive years for some time as well.

With over a dozen events under his belt as director, Williams has had a front row seat to watch the festival grow. He has seen people from various walks of life enjoy the 15-year tradition.

“There has always been a wide audience demographic,” he said. “But in the last several years it’s gotten a lot younger.”

The things Williams enjoys most about his job are the music and people.

“I get to book great artists, and I get to work with wonderful people,” he said.

Michael Valliant, co-chair of the Venues committee for Lotus is in his eight year as an employee. For the past seven years he worked as a volunteer to build the festival by setting up tents and building stages.

This year he will help design and manage the set up of the festival, focusing primarily on the performance venue. He enjoys the design work that goes into building up an event like this.

“I love the background work that is transparent to most festival attendees,” he said. “And that we get the palette of downtown on which to build. We get to close streets and build a temporary celebratory community in those streets and public spaces.”

Building up the tents, and stages will take Valliant and his co-workers close to two days to complete. The planning for Lotus began months before, and Valliant said he has attended weekly meetings since sometime in June.

Despite this high level of work, he’s proud to be a part of Lotus Fest.

“As important as the music and transforming the downtown is, the festival has a positive reputation around the country and world,” he said. “I love that a small southern Indiana community creates this event.”

Valliant has lived in Bloomington nearly all his life and he is currently in a master’s program for sustainable tourism in the School of HPER.

As a Bloomingtonian, he enjoys the camaraderie that descends on downtown Bloomington once a year.

“The closeness and intimacy of the festival has not changed,” he said. “However, we still transform down town Bloomington into an incredible site of celebration. It always goes too quickly for me.”