From June 19 to 21, 2025, the city of Essaouira will once again vibrate to the rhythm of shared musical mergers and emotions. A true cultural emblem for more than a quarter of a century, the Gnaoua and world music festival returns for a promising 26th edition, mixing tradition, innovation and artistic fraternity.
Since 1998, the festival has continued to evolve, establishing itself as an unmissable event on the world music scene. Well beyond a simple artistic event, it asserts itself as a living cultural project, an engine of intergenerational transmission, of dialogue between cultures, and reflection on musical changes on a global scale. Each year, he transforms Essaouira into a crossroads of meetings where Gnaoui heritage dialogues with music from around the world.
In a press release reached Hespress FRthe organizers explain that this new edition, scheduled from June 19 to 21, 2025, intends to reaffirm the structuring role of the festival in the Moroccan and African cultural landscape. To do this, he relies on major initiatives, such as his partnership with the prestigious Berklee College of Music, as well as an academic partnership with Mohammed VI University Polytechnic (UM6P) for the creation of a chair of cultural crosses and globalization. This will be based on the experience of the Gnaoua festival as a field of study and laboratory of contemporary cultural hybridizations.
The kick -off of this 26th edition promises to be colorful. The opening concert will bring together emblematic figures of the African scene: Maâlem Hamid El Kasri, living legend of the Gnaoui repertoire, will share the scene with the Bakalama company in Senegal, a major reference of the traditional West African dances and percussion. Alongside them, the powerful and singular voices of ABIR EL ABED (Morocco) and KYA LOUM (Senegal) will enrich this performance. A vibrant musical fusion is expected, weaving a sound bridge between the shores of the Atlantic, mixing the Moroccan trance rhythms with the wild polyrythmies of the Senegalese sabar. An immersion in a living, spiritual and resolutely festive Africa.
Among the flagship moments of this edition, several unpublished musical mergers will mark the spirits. We note in particular the collaboration between Maâlem Houssam Gania – worthy heir to the legend Mahmoud Gania – and Marcus Gilmore, American prodigy of contemporary jazz. Recognized for its creativity and rhythmic finesse, Gilmore played with sizes like Chick Corea, Esperanza Spalding or Steve Coleman. The meeting between Gania’s Guembri and Gilmore’s chopped drums promises a free, intense and extraordinary musical conversation.
-Another highlight, Maâlem Mohamed Boumezzough will venture into new musical territories, surrounded by talents from Morocco, Mali and France. By his side: Aly Keïta, Master of the Malian Balafon, Anas Chlih on guitar, Tao Ehrlich on drums, Martin Guerpin in the saxophone, Quentin Ghomari with the trumpet, and Hajar Alaoui in singing. This heterogeneous collective will give life to a daring musical creation, combining gnaouie trance, jazz, African music and contemporary grooves. An ambitious merger, placed under the sign of freedom, party and meeting.
The Gnaoua festival has always been illustrated by its opening to international pop and soul, welcoming artists like Ayo, Selah Sue or more recently Saint Levant in the past. This year, he strikes a big blow with the arrival of Ckay, a planetary phenomenon of Afrobeats. The Nigerian singer, propelled to the front of the stage thanks to his interplanetary tube Love Nwantiti – accumulating more than 6 billion streams – embodies a new wave of African music. With its unique style called Afro-Emo, mixing African rhythms, soul tones and intimate words, Ckay has seduced a global audience.
Complete artist – singer, composer, producer -, Ckay chained successes with his albums Sad Romance and Emotions, and was named to the Brit Awards, Bet Awards, while winning two BMI Awards. His performance in Essaouira promises to be one of the great moments of this edition, marking a new stage in the opening of the festival to contemporary African popular music.
Over the years, the Gnaoua and world music festival of Essaouira has established itself as a multidimensional cultural platform. By investing in training, academic research and artistic creation, it contributes to structuring a Moroccan and African cultural ecosystem both solid and in motion underline the organizers, noting that each edition is an opportunity to celebrate freedom of expression, musical experimentation and richness of intercultural dialogues.
More than just a musical event, this festival has become a place of passage forced for music lovers, researchers, curious and artists from around the world. He continues to wear the values of tolerance, openness and creativity high that make Essaouira the singularity.
