When it comes to beating the drum for Sunfest, nobody does it better than Tandava.

The B.C. ensemble opens Western Union Sunfest 2006 tonight at Victoria Park. With two percussionists, Tandava has the drum thunder to set the tone for the four-day outdoor fest where the beat never stops. With marimba player and percussionist Jonathan Bernard calling the shots, Tandava also knows how to make its spoken words thump loudly.

"Sunfest, in our view, is one of the top three festivals in Canada. The programming is exceptional," Bernard says.

No argument here. The word from a band that's been called "a metaphor for Canada in the 21st century" certainly sums up Sunfest forcefully. So does the comment of Tandava's tabla and percussion player Stefan Cihelka about Tandava's own method of making its world beat work.

"It's very democratic . . . Everybody is respecting each other's space," Cihelka says of the quartet's blend of south Asian, Chinese, western and other music in its own sonic universe.

The 12th edition brings Tandava and a few other stars from past Sunfests -- including Toronto's surging Samba Squad and Toronto reggae star Lazo, the world beat fest's answer to Home County's Jackie Washington -- back to the park.

"It's his 11th festival . . . If we don't bring him, a lot of people will kill us," Sunfest artistic director Alfredo Caxaj says with a smile about Lazo, a fan favourite year after year. "He's almost like an icon -- and, of course, the guy does an incredible job."

But most of the performers for 2006 are new, Caxaj says.

"More than 90 per cent brand-new artists (is) the general rule . . . That's what really makes the festival so unique," he says.

Sunfest has many other attractions, including its donations -- encouraged status as a free admission event.

"Many of these groups, once again, are headlining at other summer festivals, where people have to pay admission. Here they are coming to London, Ontario," Caxaj says. For free, but do donate, I can add.

Among the first-time performers is Brazil's samba-funk-electronica star CeU, a 26-year-old who will be performing at Sunfest 2006's finale Sunday night.

"The roots of Brazilian music are always with me," says CeU, the performing name for Maria do Ceu Whitaker Pocas of Sao Paulo. Her father was also a musician who introduced CeU (pronounced "seh-ew") to the works of such great Brazilian composers as Hector Villa Lobos. She was also aware of Brazil's ballad-masters including Jobim.

She added the sounds of Jamaican dub, afro-beat and other influences to her own Sao Paulo sound.

CeU's recent album is mostly originals but includes a cover of reggae superstar Bob Marley's Concrete Jungle.

"We have a . . . (scene) that looks a lot to Jamaica. We have dub nights here in Sao Paulo," she says.

The first sound on the album is scratching from the band's DJ, a sign of the way CeU wants to take her music.

"We are seven," she says of her lineup. "We have this DJ in the band. He's a very serious part of the band. He does all the samples."

Another performer new to Sunfest is Cape Verde's Sara Tavares, a singer and songwriter who grew up in Portugal. Tavares sings in both Portuguese and a Creole dialect, known as Crioulo and based on archaic Portuguese but also influenced by African and European languages.

Tavares says she is from a "broken home" and identifies with street culture. "There is a big, big generation of Cape Verdeans and other Africans here in Lisbon, in Paris, in Boston, all over with a kind of messed-up identity," she says. "Our generation feels very lost because there is no culture specifically for us, that talks about our reality."

The rootlessness she battles in her own art and life has also affected Portugal's young people, she says. "They're absolutely obsessed with everything that comes from outside," Tavares says.

The artistic success of one of Sunfest 2006's biggest world beat stars -- the Democratic Republic of Congo's Konono No. 1 -- is built on strife-torn isolation from the world as civil war continues in the region.

"Because of the war, there's been much less communication," says Vincent Kenis, a European musician who has recorded the ensemble at its Kinshasa base. Led by Mingiedi, a 73-year-old virtuoso of the likembe (sometimes called the thumb piano), Konono's sounds go back to the music of the old kingdom of Kongo, which straddled the Congo-Angola border. "I'm reproducing the music of my village when I was a child," Kenis recalls Mingiedi telling him.

Singers, dancers and percussionists join forces with electric likembes in Konono's performances. The ensemble uses handmade microphones built from magnets salvaged from old car parts.

It also flourishes under the guidance of Mingiedi. His vision and sense of purpose reminds Kenis of Sun Ra -- the late jazz icon whose "solar arkestras" made interplanetary music all their own.

"The father of the group has something of Sun Ra; you can't distract him from what he's doing," Kenis says.

Still, Kenis has been able to add new technology, such as laptop recording, to Konono No. 1's universe and interest Mingiedi's son in contemporary guitar sounds.

That all sounds good to Caxaj, who spent less harmonious times this week dealing with last-minute visa issues affecting India's Musafir and the Honduran performer Aurelio Martinez.

"These are really the cream of world music performers, starting with Konono," he says of Sunfest 2006's bill.

True enough -- but, going by the schedule, you could also say "starting with Tandava."

IF YOU GO

What: Western Union Sunfest 2006, the 12th annual outdoor festival of world music, dance, food and crafts in downtown London; presentation of not-for-profit Sunfest-London Committee for Cross Cultural Arts Inc.; free, but donations welcome; more than 22 performers, including Canadian-based world beat and jazz acts, plus performers from Mali, Spain, India, Brazil, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iran, Guinea, Cuba, Cape Verde, Honduras and Mexico. The Kiwanis (temporarily dubbed Western Union by fest organizers) bandshell and one of three temporary stages are used for evening concerts all four nights of Sunfest, while the temporary stages are used Saturday and Sunday afternoons and early evenings.

When: Tonight and tomorrow, 6 p.m. to 11 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. (music starts at noon both days).

Where: Victoria Park and a section of Wellington Street east of the park near city hall.

Details: Programs are $3; more than140 food and crafts vendors; call 519-672-1522, e-mail info@sunfest.on.ca or check www.sunfest.on.ca

SUNFEST 2006 EVENING LINEUPS

Tonight

Western Union bandshell: Tandava, 6 p.m.; opening ceremonies, 6:45 p.m.; Rosheen, 8:30 p.m., Les Amazones de Guinee, 10 p.m.

VIA Rail south stage: Rosheen, 6 p.m.; Musafir, 7 p.m.; Afrodizz, 8:30 p.m., Los de Abajo, 9:45 p.m.

Tomorrow

Bandshell: Musafir, 6 p.m.; Yves Lambert et le Bebert Orchestra, 7 p.m.; Niyaz, 8:30 p.m., Los de Abajo, 10 p.m.

South stage: Rosheen, 6 p.m.; Aurelio Martinez, 7 p.m.; Les Amazones de Guinee, 8 p.m., Afrodizz, 9 p.m.; Valle Son, 10 p.m.

Saturday

Bandshell: Jing Yi, 6 p.m.; Seckou Keita, 7 p.m.; Lazo, 8 p.m., Sara Tavares, 9 p.m.; Valle Son, 10 p.m.

South stage: Yves Lambert et le Bebert Orchestra, 6 p.m.; Lubo Alexandrov and Kaba Horo, 7 p.m.; CeU, 8 p.m.; Niyaz, 9 p.m.; Amparanoia 10 p.m.

Jazz Village north sage: Tandava, 6 p.m.; Les Projectionnistes, 7 p.m.

Sunday

Bandshell: Les Amazones de Guinee, 6 p.m.; Lubo Alexandrov and Kaba Horo, 7 p.m.; CeU, 8 p.m., Konono No.1, 9 p.m.; Amparanoia, 10 p.m.

South stage: Jing Yi, 6 p.m.; Sara Tavares, 7 p.m.; Niyaz, 8 p.m., Valle Son, 9 p.m.; Lazo, 10 p.m.

Jazz Village north stage: Samba Squad, 6 p.m.; Phil Nimmons & Friends, 7 p.m.