Festival Gnaoua and World Music: The 26th edition will set souls and rhythms on fire!

The Festival Gnaoua and World Music, now in its 26th edition, is not just a musical event: it is an explosion of emotions, a laboratory of hybridizations where millennia-old traditions and modernity entwine in a frenetic dance.

For a quarter of a century, this unique festival has made Essaouira a global crossroads, where the guembri of the Gnaoua masters dialogues with jazz, afrobeats, and West African polyrhythms. More than an event, it is a living manifesto for transmission and innovation, embodied this year in bold partnerships: with the Berklee College of Music to train new generations and Mohammed VI Polytechnic University for a Chair of Cultural Crossings, a true think tank of cultural blending. Nothing less!

The opening concert will make the Atlantic vibrate. Maâlem Hamid El Kasri, a monument of Gnaoua, joins forces with the Senegalese company Bakalama, virtuosos of West African percussion and dance. Add the magnetic voices of Abir El Abed (Morocco) and Kya Loum (Senegal), and you get a musical bridge between Casablanca and Dakar, where Moroccan trances fuse with Senegalese sabars. A rhythmic slap, a cry of living Africa, a shot of brotherhood.

The festival is also known for its hallmark: musical encounters that push boundaries. Maâlem Houssam Gania, spiritual son of the legend Mahmoud Gania, battles with Marcus Gilmore, a prodigy jazz drummer from the US, collaborator of Chick Corea and Esperanza Spalding. Between the deep groove of the guembri and Gilmore’s bold metrics, expect a free, vibrant conversation where the ancestral and contemporary gaze and embrace each other.

Another gem: Maâlem Mohamed Boumezzough, surrounded by a cosmopolitan crew including Malian Aly Keïta (master of the balafon), guitarist Anas Chlih, saxophonist Martin Guerpin, and singer Hajar Alaoui. This unbridled collective will shake up the codes of Gnaoua trance, blending African pulses, fiery jazz, and modern grooves. A barrier-free party, a hymn to freedom.

And then there is CKay, the Nigerian afrobeats sensation, arriving with his hit «Love Nwantiti» (6 billion streams, please!). Singer, songwriter, producer, CKay reinvents African pop with his Afro-Emo, a cocktail of dance rhythms and raw emotions. Nominated for BRIT and BET Awards, double winner of BMI Awards, he promises an explosive show, in the line of legendary performances by Ayo or Selah Sue in Essaouira. A pop moment of grace to make souls dance.

Since 1998, the Festival Gnaoua and World Music of Essaouira has shone for its ability to combine heritage and modernity, tradition and innovation. By investing in training, research, and creation, it helps structure a true Moroccan and African cultural ecosystem while offering the public rare and unforgettable musical experiences.

A festival unlike any other, where every note celebrates freedom, encounter, and creation.

So, head to Essaouira in June to get lost in the medina’s alleys, to be swept away by the trances, grooves, and meetings. Here, music is not consumed: it is lived, shared, and liberates. And in Essaouira, it changes the world.