Festival D'Essaouira Gnaoua is an annual world music festival, mostly free to the public and spread across the the squares, streets and historic spaces of Essaouira. Rooted in the rich traditions of Gnaoua music, the festival brings together artists from across African and around the world, creating a space where musical traditions can meet, evolve and enter into dialogue.
Worldwide FM host Kamar and Station Manager Magdalena Moursy attended the festival to explore how its curation brings these encounters to life. Through specially commissioned collaborations, Gnaoua Maâlems perform alongside musicians from across the globe, blending ancestral rhythms with contemporary sounds and virtuoso improvisation.
Gnaoua is a centuries-old Moroccan spiritual musical tradition with deep ancestral roots in Africa. Shaped through generations of cultural exchange and transmission, it encompasses music, rhythm, ritual and spiritual practice, and holds an important place within Morocco’s cultural heritage.
Since its founding in 1998, the Gnaoua and World Music Festival in Essaouira has helped create greater international visibility for the tradition, providing Maâlems — the master musicians who carry and transmit Gnaoua repertoire — with a platform to share their music with audiences around the world.
Tealeaves is Kamar's monthly show on Worldwide FM, championing musical diversity and celebrating how the movement of people has shaped the world to make it artistically rich. Across the series he's welcomed artists including Mad Professor, Cymande, Channel One Soundsystem, Nitin Sawhney, Rogê and anaiis, tracing connections and diasporic influence across genres from jazz and dub to latin, electronica and beyond.
From Cuba and Côte d’Ivoire to Mali and Tunisia, the festival’s Pan-African programme brings Gnaoua Maâlems together with musicians working across jazz, reggae, blues, rock and other contemporary traditions.
These collaborations create opportunities for artists to explore connections between different musical languages while remaining rooted in their respective traditions. The 2025 programme featured artists including Nigerian Afrobeats artist CKay, Ivorian reggae musician Tiken Jah Fakoly and Cuban artist Cimafunk, alongside Gnaoua Maâlems from Morocco.
Ivorian Reggae Singer Tiken Jah Fakoly
For Tealeaves, Kamar spoke with Gnaoua musicians including Maalema Hind Ennaira, alongside Nigerian Afrobeats star Ckay, Cuba’s Cima Funk and his Gnaoua Festival Fusion's collaborator Maalem Khalid Sansi and Tunisian singer and oud virtuoso Dhafer Youssef.
Each artist shared different perspectives on the festival’s approach to musical exchange, exploring the connections between Gnaoua tradition and the diverse musical sounds represented across its programme.
Cuban artist Cima Funk & his Gnaoua Fusion's collaborator Maalem Khalid Sans
"Diving into Gnaoua Festival was a trip, it was like living in two timelines, old and new. Watching the Maâlem's traditional Gnaoua performances sent me fully back in time. Set against the backdrop of Essaouira you could really feel the lineage and history of Gnaoua culture being kept alive in the most beautiful way. Then you had the fusion performances of Maâlems with contemporary and globally diverse musicians which brought a wholly new expression to the traditions of Gnaoua - which these Maâlems and their predecessors have kept alive for 4-500 years. The festival is unprecedented as a spectacle of cultural significance and being able to interview so many of these artists is a memory i'll cherish." Kamar
Listen back to Kamar’s Tealeaves: Festival D'essaouira Gnaoua Special
Photos & Video Content by Magdalena Moursy
Video Edit by Sophie Farrell
