Even if you don’t think Balkan band music is your cup of borscht, this annual extravaganza will have you dancing on tables and shouting “opa!” within minutes of your arrival. This is the world’s ultimate party music, and it’s seductive charms are impossible to resist, especially with...dozens of attendant artisans dancers, singers, craftsmen, chefs on hand. This annual festival, hosted by the New York-based 12-piece brass band Zlatne Uste (which means “Golden Lips”) is the superbowl of Balkan debauchery and good clean fun...so many joyful and attractive people from all over the world, that the major thing you have to worry about is waking up a few days later and finding that you’ve gone and gotten married to a belly dancer named Victoria from Sofia, or maybe Sophia from Victoria.

It’s probably the best concert you’ll see this year in New York, maybe anywhere. The overall experience last night was also old-world, in all the best ways. Eighty-year-old grandmothers danced with twenty-year-old dudes and grade school kids from what appeared to be every corner of the globe. Through five nonstop hours of music, the circles of line-dancers kept expanding, to the point where those who weren’t dancing either had to join the line or step off the dance floor.

Visitors wander between the Hall’s many rooms in search of their favorite acts, and can take time out to shop and nibble on traditional Balkan treats. Attendees can also wander up to the venue’s fifth floor, where skilled musicians — some on the program and others not — jam with each other informally.

The joyous, inclusive, and diverse four-stage lineup is anchored by a quintet of fine local brass bands augmented by dozens of Balkan, Turkish, Macedonian, and other Eastern European ensembles boasting varying degrees of authenticity and innovation, from a cappella to electronica...Come for the complimentary meze, stay for the eternal circle dances.