Essaouira’s Gnaoua Festival Returns: 40 Concerts Blend African Traditions with Global Sounds

This year again, the "Gnaoua and World Music" Festival is betting on boldness and authenticity. On the program, 3 days of musical exploration, spread throughout the city.

The event, which aims to be an invitation to travel, does not in any way deviate from its ideal: to promote the ancestral art of "gnaoua", by showcasing artists who draw from the rich traditional African ferment. But, musicians from all over the world will also be seen, to allow musical collaborations as surprising as they are enriching. The aim will be to prove, once again, the universality of music.

After having captivated the public last year with a rich musical approach, with the group "Bénin international musical (BIM)", from Benin, which sees itself as the standard-bearer of the musical art of vodoun, enhanced by urban music, Maâlem Hassan Boussou returns this year to ensure, from the first evening, on the "Moulay Hassan" Square, the opening concert.

For those who love musical adventures, Boussou should enchant them, in featuring, this time, with the Cuban Group, "Osain del Monte". This will be the renewal of two ancestral therapeutic musics: "tagnaouite" and Afro-Cuban music. The Maâlem and the Cuban group will thus restore to the public the fruit of a residency that intends to celebrate sharing, exchange and fusion.

In total, about forty concerts are planned, to flood the city of Essaouira, for the benefit of an audience that has been loyal for 22 years, but also of curious people who flock from all over the world every year.