Grooversity Festival Will Bring the Beats to Somerville

All about that (drum)beat.

bloco afrobrazil boston

Bloco AfroBrazil at the Berklee Beantown Jazz Festival. / Photo by AskDzign on Flickr

If you’ve been to any local outdoor music festivals such as the Berklee Beantown Jazz Fest, Honk!, and so on, then there’s a good chance you’ve run into Bloco AfroBrazil, a lively percussion ensemble who infuse their surroundings with upbeat energy and rhythm.

This weekend, Bloco and other world music performers will take part in Grooversity Festival, a celebration of all things drumming founded by Brazilian percussionist Marcus Santos, who also leads Bloco AfroBrazil. Grooversity goals are threef0ld: entertainment, education, and social change—similar to the attitude of Somerville’s annual Honk! Festival of Activist Street Bands, but focused on drumming in particular.

Grooversity Fest 2014 will take place Saturday afternoon at East Somerville Community School with live performances from Bloco AfroBrazil, Ben Paulding and Emmanuel Attah Poku, She Boom, and more, as well as workshops hosted by Santos, Bas Janssen, and others.

The event will be livestreamed, so drumming enthusiasts who can’t make it out can still follow along online and even win prizes.

 

Free, Saturday, November 15, 1-6:30 p.m., 50 Cross St., Somerville, grooversity.com.