It is generally taken to denote music from outside the western anglophone world. As if jazz, R&B and Mary Poppins were from Alpha Centauri.

So the words "Festival of World Cultures", the seventh of which takes place in Dun Laoghaire next weekend, might be regarded as somewhat ambiguous, in that "world" excludes nothing at all.

But then, perhaps the absence of exclusion, even in a lexicographic sense, is what was intended and no more than appropriate. While musically the festival has often seemed more focused on the exotic than the competent, the event has nonetheless grown into something of an institution on the summer festival circuit where a spirit of genuine international brotherhood is conjured along the seafront.

This year's musical offering is the most promising yet and includes some major figures from Portuguese Fado, FrenchAlgerian pop, Malian blues and Balkan funk, to give them more specific if only slightly less fatuous genre names.

Fado is sometimes described as Portugal's version of the blues, the product of a meeting between African, Brazilian and Iberian cultures in the working class barrios of Lisbon. Mariza, who opens the festival in Monkstown Parish church on Friday, is one of its greatest exponents and has transfixed Irish audiences on her previous visits to Dublin.

Fanfare Ciocarlia, souped-up purveyors of the Balkan brassband tradition, are said to be the favourite group of film composer Danny Elfman. Though they have been on the go for some 20 years, they have been attracting more attention internationally of late, since winning a BBC World Music Award last year. They play the Pavillion Theatre on Saturday.

Malian legends the Super Rail Band of the Buffet Hotel de la Gare, Bambakao . . . who win the hotly contested prize for best band name of the festival . . .

number superstars Salif Keita and Mory Kante amongst their former vocalists. One of the cradles of Malian musical talent, they have been on the go since 1970, mixing the musical traditions of the Manding with jazz and rumba to marvellous effect.

They headline on the outdoor stage on the seafront on Saturday.

But perhaps the biggest and certainly the loudest concert of the weekend will be FrenchAlgerian pop icon Rachid Taha's performance on the seafront on Sunday night. Taha draws on the rich musical heritage of the Maghreb but he isn't afraid to marry them to drum-and-bass and even punk. The biggest cheer of the night may well be for Taha's version of the Clash's 'Rock the Casbah'.

The Festival of World Cultures takes place in Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin from 24-26 August