After welcoming 120,000 people this year
It’s official. The Gnaoua and World Music Festival in Essaouira will hold its 24th edition from June 22 to 24, 2023. The appointment was given by A3 Communication, producer and organizer of the event, which is delighted that the festival has gathered this year. . “The four stages of the Gnaoua Festival Tour which took place from June 3 to 24, 2022 in Essaouira, Marrakech, Casablanca and Rabat met, in fact, a success beyond expectations”, announces the organizer of this event in a communicated.
According to the same source, the public responded in force and in joy, as did the artists, with a dialogue that was played on stage, every evening, during the 30 concerts of the Festival. “Nearly 120,000 festival-goers vibrated to the enchanting rhythms of the fusions, finding the magic of the Gnaoua Festival in four cities of the Kingdom”, says your.
The initiators emphasize that the Gnaoua maâlems have once again proven the strength of their heritage and the success of the exchange, inviting musicians from all over the world to share, to create a renewed dialogue and to contribute to the enrichment of cultural diversity and human creativity. The Gnaoua Festival Tour, notes the same source, was a “real success with more than 150 artists, including 23 maâlems who performed during 30 colorful and emotional concerts, in addition to an exceptional artistic program thought out, created and carried with passion by the two artistic directors, the great maâlem Abdeslam Alikane and the talented drummer Karim Ziad”.
The organizers cited moments of pure musical magic during fusions that will go down in history, such as the jazz-tinged ones of Avishai Cohen Trio with saxophonist Emile Parisien and accordionist Vincent Peirani in fusion with the great Hamid El Kasri at the end. of the tour in Rabat, enriched by the sweetness of Nabyla Maan, those charged with energy of the Trio Assala, or the Cubans of CimaFunk with the maâlems Khalid Sansi and Ismail Rahil. They also recall that in December 2019, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco), which considers intangible cultural heritage as a crucible of cultural diversity and guarantor of sustainable development, granted the status of intangible cultural heritage of humanity to the Gnaoua.
The press release specifies that “the Gnawa culture continues to gain in popularity and vitality, in Morocco and around the world”, affirming that the artists present during this exceptional tour, musicians from Morocco and the 15 countries guests, showed the power of cultural mixing when artistic encounters create bridges. In addition, the musicians, who were present in force, add the initiators, enchanted the public and conquered the press through the performances of the two malemates, Asmaa Hamzaoui and the young Hind Ennaira, the Senegalese with the golden voice Kya Loum , the guardian of the temple of Moroccan song Soukaina Fahsi, the bewitching Hindi Zahra, the virtuoso flautist Naïssam Jalal, the singer Fama Mbaye from Mauritania, the American drummer prodigy of the Avishai Cohen Trio Roni Kaspi and the profound Nabyla Maan, a true trait union between contemporary music and the Arab-Andalusian tradition. The organization of the Gnaoua Festival Tour, notes the press release, confirms this in the wake of 22 successful editions of the Gnaoua Festival and world music, thus taking up the challenge of crossing generations. After two years of stoppage due to Covid-19, the festival tour through 4 cities has once again demonstrated the remarkable ability of the Gnaoua to federate and participate in the promotion of the values of openness, tolerance and sharing.
And the same source recalls that the producer of the festival, Neïla Tazi, declared during the closing evening that the organizers have from the beginning chosen to approach this project as if it were an inexhaustible treasure. waiting to be discovered and conquered, that of “our popular culture and our youth”. The Gnaoua Festival Tour was also an opportunity to allow the new generation of Gnaoua artists to “show the full extent of their talent, alongside the biggest names in Tagnaouite, featuring the next generation of Gnaoua and young Maâlems , who have taken up the torch and have become the guarantors of sustainability.
