Perhaps it's still too early to be talking about gigs of the year but the upcoming Altan Festival might prove hard to beat. There will be three outstanding acts. All come from the fringes of Europe, from peoples with a history of persecution, but all have an equally long and proud music tradition that is colorful and exciting.

Altan is still probably the best Irish traditional music group around, and have become regular visitors to Japan. However, it's the other acts on the bill, Romania's Taraf de Haidouks and Kepa Junkera from Spain's Basque region, which make this such an intriguing prospect. The virtuosity of the players, and range of instruments on display will be quite staggering. All will also be playing their own gigs on other nights.

Taraf de Haidouks (Band of Brigands) hail from the Romanian lowland village of Clejani, quite close to Bucharest. About 3,000 people live in Clejani, of which approximately 300 are Gypsies, and among the Gypsy population, about 50 are musicians.

In 1989, after the overthrow of Ceausescu, Belgian Gypsy music enthusiasts Michel Winter and Stephane Karo traveled to Clejani in search of musicians they had heard on an "ethnic" recording on a French label. The two struck up a friendship with the musicians, and turned them into a professional "Taraf," organizing tours and a record deal.

The group now numbers 13, ranging in age from 20s to late 70s. During their show, various smaller ensembles emerge from the entire company to perform music from the different generations. All, though, are lautari, belonging to a lineage of Gypsy musicians who pass down their musical tradition through the generations. Nicolae Neascu, 78, is one of the elders coming to Japan. A man with a grizzled face and a toothless grin, he plays violin and sings with an emotional depth to match the character in his face. In contrast, the younger violin player, Caliu Anghel Gheorghe, plays with an entertaining flashiness.

Taraf de Haidouks was the first Eastern European village band to tour the world. Remarkably, they do so without diluting their music, which is essentially the same as they play in their village back home. Their music can sometimes be played at breathtaking speed, with musical trickery thrown in, such as pulling a horse hair through the fingers that is tied to the lower string of the violin, to produce an amazing guttural sound.

Such spectacles aside, it's the variety of tempos, rhythms, styles, songs and dances that makes the band so entertaining. The time I saw them at a WOMAD festival in England, their show was at times intimate, at times wild, and had a refreshing sense of spontaneity.

Kepa Junkera, 35, is from the Basque country of Spain, or Euskadi. The Basque culture is one of Europe's richest, and their language, of unknown origin, is thought to be Europe's oldest living language. Junkera plays the trikitixa, a Basque accordion, literally meaning "devil's bellows." Trikitixa is also the name of the music, originally for the pipes that was transposed for the accordion.

On first listen, it can sound similar to Celtic music, although it has a somewhat lighter and bouncier feel. Junkera is a remarkable player; technically brilliant but also deeply expressive. He has not been afraid to experiment with his tradition and has collaborated with an array of musicians from around the world. These included musicians from Spain (Gallician piper Carlos Nunez), Madagascar, Ireland, America and Sweden on his groundbreaking and hugely successful album "Bilbao 00:00h."

Junkera will be joined by five musicians on guitar, mandolin, bass, drums and two txalaparta players, a Basque percussion instrument. When played together, two txalapartaris can be an hypnotic experience.

To the group's credit, since signing to Virgin a few years back, Altan has mostly resisted the temptation to dilute their music in search of a mainstream audience. Their new album "Another Sky," has, however, moved in this direction to a degree. Guests include Bonnie Raitt and Donal Lunny, and they even tackle a Dylan song "Girl From the North Country."

The spotlight is focused more on Maighread ni Mhaonaigh the vocalist than the fiddle player, at the expense of their glorious duo fiddle tunes, that feature Ciaran Tourish. Nevertheless, everything is done with integrity and passion. They have firmly established themselves as "Ireland's top traditional group" and are the group all the others can only aspire to. Don't expect them to be toppled from their mantle in the foreseeable future.