The Gnawa and World Music Festival in Essaouira unveils unprecedented musical fusions for its 26th edition
The Gnawa and World Music Festival in Essaouira has announced a series of exceptional musical encounters that will characterize its 26th edition, scheduled for June 19 to 21. Organizers have stated that this new edition will carry a rich creative spirit, embodying the essence of openness and cultural intersection among musical styles from around the globe.
The festival will feature fusion concerts that blend the ancient art of Gnawa with rhythms from the Caribbean, Latin America, jazz, and Sufi spirituals, reflecting its ongoing effort to connect Gnawa heritage with world music. Among the highly anticipated performances, master Khaled Sanssi, a prominent young face of Gnawa, will collaborate with Cuban artist Cimafunk, who merges funk with Afro-Cuban rhythms in a performance described as unprecedented.
Master Sanssi, hailing from a Gnawa family in Casablanca, will present a musical blend that combines the spiritual with the contemporary, drawing from his artistic journey alongside global artists like Jacques Schwarz-Bart. In another expected encounter, the festival will feature master Mourad Marjan, from the new generation of Gnawa musicians, alongside Tunisian artist Dhafer Youssef, who blends the oud with jazz and Sufi expressions, creating a musical dialogue that embraces spiritual expression at its finest.
The festival continues to honor women’s voices from Africa through a special program titled “Strong Women, Living Memory,” featuring Moroccan artist Asmaa Hamzaoui and her group “Bnat Timbuktu,” who will perform alongside the powerful female voice from Mali, Rokia Traoré. Hamzaoui, daughter of master Rashid Hamzaoui, presents a unique female model in Gnawa, while Traoré continues her journey as one of Africa’s prominent voices, blending traditional roots with modern expressions.
Since its inception in 1998, the Gnawa and World Music Festival in Essaouira has been a distinctive space for cultural convergence and artistic cross-pollination, inviting Gnawa masters to collaborate with musicians from various continents. Organizers affirm that this current edition will witness powerful artistic moments, both through fusion concerts and solo performances at the Moulay Hassan stage, noting that announcements of new surprises will follow in the coming weeks.
For more than a quarter of a century, the festival has been crafting a tale of music without borders, committed to enhancing cultural exchange and establishing Essaouira as the capital of Gnawa art and a nurturing ground for world music.
