French Institutes in Morocco Revive Popular ’Nights of Ramadan’ Music Festival

Several cities of the kingdom will host from May 9 to 14, 2019, this musical event which over the years has been able to fully integrate into the habits of the populations. This year, the Nights of Ramadan will travel to 12 cities, namely, Agadir, Casablanca, El Jadida, Essaouira, Fez, Kenitra, Marrakech, Meknes, Oujda, Rabat, Tangier and Tetouan.

About twenty concerts are planned for the delight of the populations of these different cities. On the menu, in addition to the popular Moroccan sounds such as Gnaoua or Chaabi, for example, the event offers a well-stocked program that opens up to other world music, including reggae, bikutsi, bossa nova, brass bands and musical fusions.

A press conference held on Thursday, April 2 at the French Institute of Casablanca allowed its director, Clélia Chevrier Kolačko and her counterpart from El Jadida, Anne-Marie Thuillier, to detail the programming of this 2019 edition of the Nights of Ramadan. It emerges several headliners who will liven up the event. We can mention, Elida Almeida, young talent of Cape Verdean music and winner of the RFI Discovery Prize 2015, the duo Aziz Sahmaoui and Hassan Boussou who need no introduction. But also the Algerian artist Ahmed Djamil Ghouli alias Djam, made famous thanks to his title "H’chich ou pois chiche", Lornoar, the cream of Cameroonian music, and the festive Fanfare Couche-Tard. In short, well-chosen artists to guarantee the public a bouquet of emotions.

A major cultural event in Morocco, the "Nights of Ramadan" were born in El Jadida in 2007, before spreading to the entire network of the French Institute of Morocco (IFM) from 2012.