More mature, more committed, and more eclectic, the Gnaoua and World Music Festival of Essaouira returns for a new edition. This year, from 14 to 17 May, it blows out its eighteenth candle and celebrates its age of reason. The most anticipated musical event of the year promises a beautiful edition placed under the sign of richness and novelty.
The Festival, which has changed the destiny of an entire city and many Gnaoua artists, is finally receiving recognition. Neila Tazi, producer and director of the Festival, declares: "The 18 years mark the beginning of a new era. That of emancipation and public-private partnership for a project that, until now, had never benefited from funding from the city." Marking a new start, this news did not come alone. Morocco has just officially submitted the request to UNESCO to register Gnaoua culture as oral and intangible world heritage of humanity. The process should take two years.
The organisers hope to celebrate the culmination of this colossal work for the twenty years of the Festival.
Regarding the programming, the public will be entitled to a diversified musical selection focused mainly on fusions during which the maâlems welcome world musicians. An important place is given to Moroccan artists from elsewhere: Hindi Zahra and Aziz Sahmaoui, and to the urban artistic scene: Mehdi Nassouli, Darga, Barry, Diapa Zone, and Timbuuktu.
The ball will be opened by maâlem Hamid El Kasri and the Afghan artist Humayun Khan. Every day, the fusions, the event's trademark, will be on the agenda. Tony Allen from Nigeria will respond to maâlem Mohamed Kouyou. The Gnaoua-jazz fusion will make music lovers dance with the presence of the American saxophonist Kenny Garrett. A student of Miles Davis, he is one of the greats of contemporary jazz. The journey of the senses continues in Guadeloupe with the reggae fusion specialist maâlem Omar Hayat and the heir to the Gwo Ka culture Sonny Troupé, and in Denmark with the group Mikkel NordsØ Band, author twenty years ago of an album "Aicha" with maâlem Mustapha Baqbou.
Other highly anticipated reunions are those with the group "Les Ambassadeurs", composed of pioneering artists of modern Malian music like Salif Keita, Cheick Tidiane Seck, and Amadou Bagayoko. The Festival forum, which has become an important part of the programme, is devoted to "Africa to come", but this time from the point of view of women. Economy, culture, society, politics... all aspects of female participation in public life in Africa will be addressed on this occasion.
