Mawazine to set the bar high with this year's festival

2009-02-25

Big names like Warda Al Jazairia, Samira Said and Kazem Al Saher will perform in this year’s Mawazine festival. Stevie Wonder is scheduled to perform the closing act.

By Hassan Benmehdi for Magharebia in Rabat—25/02/09

[Hassan Benmehdi] Stevie Wonder will perform the closing act in the Mawazine festival in Rabat.

Music fans in the Maghreb are eagerly awaiting the 8th Mawazine Festival, which promises to feature renowned performers from around the world.

This year’s edition will take place May 15th through the 23rd in Rabat under the theme "Rhythms of the World".

Although Mawazine is already one of Morocco's most important festivals, the goal this year is to make it even bigger, both nationally and internationally.

"Mawazine’s artistic and cultural diversity is this event’s prime calling, namely opening up to the music and cultures of countries all over the world," Aziz Seghrouchni, the festival’s deputy chairman, said in a news conference last Wednesday in Rabat. "It is a source of cultural riches and it is able to break away from the idea of a single or dominant cultural model."

Australian Kylie Minogue will get the party started.

Also on the performers list are white Zulu Johnny Clegg, Italian Ennio Morricone, American Alicia Keys, the group Ska Cubano and guitarist Eliades Ochoa – both from Cuba – Brazilian Sergio Mendes, and Americans Solomon Burke and The Neville Brothers.

Other performers include Algeria's legendary singer, Warda Al Jazairia, Iraq’s Kazem Al Saher, UAE’s Hussein El Jasmi, Lebanon’s Najwa Karam, Algerian Rai singer Cheb Khaled, and Tunisia’s Lotfi Bouchnak.

Morocco alone is participating through a numbers of artists, including Samira Said, Fethellah Lamghari, Aziza Malak, Stati, Fez City Clan, Big, Casa Crew, and many others.

"The programme will hold its head up high alongside large-scale international events, given the world's stars who had been invited for the occasion," said Aziz Daki, Mawazine’s artistic director.

Americas Stevie Wonder will perform at the closing night.

Anticipation is building and music fans are crazed by the news.

"I will do all I can to make sure I don’t miss the Stevie Wonder concert," said Abdelhakim, a trader in Casablanca. "He’s one of my favourite singers."

"As for me," said Latifa Ghoufal, a law student in Casablanca, "it’s a long-awaited opportunity to encounter some international artists, along with all the different kinds of music from around the world and to have a really good live experience."

Mawazine's main venues this year are Mohammed V theatre, Chellah, the Villa des Arts in Rabat, OLM Souissi, Bouregrag, Qamra, Hay Nahda, Place Moulay Al Hassan and Nouzhat Hassan.

To encourage artistic creativity, the festival will feature the "Mawazine Generations" competition. It will be a chance for talented musicians to display their talent, and will be open to all styles of music, songs and dancing.

There will also be street performances in Rabat, such as the Indian Maharaja Brass Band, which will entertain the young and old with acrobatics.

Last year, the festival attracted more than a million fans in nine venues, according to Mounir El Majidi, chairman of the Mawazine festival and the Maroc-Cultures Association. "And this year we hope to attract even more, to develop high-quality cultural tourism and to strengthen Rabat’s role as a city that is open to the world."