San Diego is California's second largest city and the seventh largest in the United States. It includes several attractive neighborhoods and communities, including downtown's historic Gaslamp Quarter, Little Italy, Coronado, La Jolla, Del Mar, Carlsbad, Escondido, La Mesa, Hillcrest, Barrio Logan, Chula Vista and more.

Balboa Park, the largest urban cultural park in the U.S., features a music center, 15 museums, numerous art galleries, beautiful gardens, The Globe Theatres and the San Diego Zoo.

The WorldBeat Cultural Center presents reggae, world music concerts, dance and music workshops, exhibits, etc. Location: 2100 Park Blvd. Balboa Park, San Diego.http://www.worldbeatcenter.org

The Center for World Music and Related Arts produces concerts, provides workshops and dance lessons and it also develops programs for schools.

The Adams Avenue Roots Festival is free and held annually in May. it features Old Time Music, Traditional Folk, Appalachian, Bluegrass, Country, Celtic, Cowboy Music, and Conjunto. The festival takes place at Adams Avenue, 34th to 35th St., Normal Heights, San Diego.

The Viejas Casino includes world music concerts at the DreamCatcher Showroom. Location: 5000 Willows Road, Alpine, CA 91901. Phone: 1-800-847-6537. E-mail: ContactUs@viejas.com.

San Diego Folk Heritage preserves and promotes acoustic music, storytelling, and contra dances in greater San Diego.

There are several reggae bands in the area: Stranger (Long Beach), the Tribe of Kings DJ collective (San Diego), and Vegitation (Ocean Beach). Ras Charles is an important personality. He has two stores, Yard Records and Earth Culture, at the 100 block of South Coast Highway, which he has turned into a thriving center of Jamaican culture.

Trade Roots Reggae is a great store for reggae in San Diego. Location: 3804 Rosecrans St., San Diego, CA 92110. Phone: +1 (619) 299-7824. E-mail: sales@traderootsreggae.com.

There is a small Flamenco scene that includes dancers, guitarists and Spanish restaurants and tapas bars. For more information about what's happening in the area, the Flamenco San Diego Web site is the best source, provided by Sociedad Flamenco Cultural, sociedadflamenco@aol.com.

The best reggae radio show in San Diego is on Sundays from 4 to 6 on 1000 am with host Ras Charles. For a nearly a year, he has run a broadcast on Palomar College's 1320 AM KKSM. In early 2004 he started a show on Premium Radio's AM 1000 KCEO.

Reggae Makossa plays Reggae music every Sunday night from 8 to 10 pm and has for the last 22 years on 91.1 XTRA FM. The show is hosted by reggae industry veteran Makeda Dread and is joined by Dangerous Dareka and Carlos Culture.

KCR College Radio has some world music programming. It operates primarily on cable radio systems, AM transmission and Internet streaming.

Jazz 88.3 FM has world music and Latin jazz shows. Check the Web site, http://www.ksds-fm.org, for updated schedules.

Art Hurts Records has released African Highlife, Brazilian music and Afropop.

For musical instruments there's the San Diego branch of Guitar Center at Guitar Center La Mesa, 8825 Murray Dr., La Mesa, California 91942.

There is also a place called Golden Hill Pawnbrokers at 1038 25th St. Phone: +1 (619) 234-5388. It has a very impressive inventory of instruments including accordions, cuatros, basses, etc.

http://www.sandiego.org

Dandelion (Vegitation), Beston Barnett (Art Hurts Records) and Angel Romero.