Africa & Middle East: Festivals & Events
7 events across 3 countries
Morocco
Music festival Essaouira Gnaoua World Music Festival Essaouira 25–27 June 2026 Three days of Gnaoua ritual music, jazz, and world music fusion in the medina and rampart squares of Essaouira: 500,000 cumulative visitors to a seaside Moroccan city that otherwise holds 80,000 people.
Cultural festival / Music festival Gnaoua World Music Festival Essaouira 25–27 June 2026 (three days; dates confirmed at festival-gnaoua.net) Four days of Gnaoua spiritual music and international fusion on the ramparts, squares, and stages of the old walled city of Essaouira.
Cultural festival Marrakech Popular Arts Festival Marrakech 8 to 12 July 2026 (approximate: dates vary annually) Djemaa el-Fna transforms into a stage for Berber musicians, Gnawa trance performers, acrobats, and fire-eaters. Morocco's biggest cultural festival in Africa's most intense square.
Music festival
Rabat Mawazine Festival (Rhythms of the World) Rabat Annual (typically last week of May to first week of June); check mawazine.ma for exact dates One of Africa's largest music festivals fills Rabat's Atlantic seafront and the banks of the Bou Regreg river for ten days each June: 2.5 million attendees, free outdoor stages, and a programme that runs from Gnawa trance music to international pop headliners.
Surf camp social scene / outdoor bonfire circuit Taghazout Surf and Bonfire Season Taghazout Year-round (peak surf: October-March; peak social: November-February) Morocco's surf village runs a year-round social scene around its surf camps, bonfire circles, and the weekly souk, with banana beach and Anchor Point providing the waves.
