Gnaoua World Music Festival 2026: The Ultimate Guide to Essaouira's Best Event
2025-06-25 08:00 - 2025-06-27 23:00 (Africa/Casablanca)
What Is the Gnaoua World Music Festival?

The Gnaoua World Music Festival 2026 is Morocco’s most celebrated cultural event — and one of the largest free music festivals on the African continent. Every June since 1998, the ancient walled city of Essaouira on Morocco’s Atlantic coast transforms entirely. Its medina streets, historic squares, and open beaches become stages for three days and nights of extraordinary music.
At its heart, the festival celebrates Gnawa music — a spiritual tradition with roots stretching back over 300 years to West Africa. UNESCO officially recognised Gnawa music as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2019, and the Gnaoua Festival remains its greatest living celebration.
What makes it unlike any other music festival in the world is what happens when the maâlems — Gnawa master musicians — step onto the stage alongside jazz artists, rock legends, and contemporary world musicians. The collaborations are unrehearsed. The chemistry is spontaneous. And the results are performances you will not hear anywhere else on earth.
Past editions have brought together global icons like Carlos Santana, Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, Marcus Miller, and Pat Metheny alongside Moroccan maâlems. The 2026 edition continues that tradition with an entirely new cast of artists united by this year’s theme: Port Cities.

2026 Dates, Location & Key Facts
The 27th edition of the Gnaoua World Music Festival 2026 takes place from June 25 to 27, 2026, in Essaouira, Morocco.

Detail
Information

Dates
June 25–27, 2026

Edition
27th

Location
Essaouira, Morocco (Atlantic coast)

Main stage
Place Moulay Hassan Square

Artists
400+ artists including 42 maâlems

Theme
Port Cities

Admission
Most concerts are FREE

Reserved seating
300–500 MAD per day

Zaouia ceremonies
~250 MAD

Essaouira is a UNESCO Creative City of Music — a fitting host for a festival that bridges living heritage with contemporary world music. The city is compact, almost entirely pedestrian in the medina, and completely transformed during the festival days. Hundreds of thousands of visitors flood into this small coastal city every June.

2026 Lineup & Theme: Port Cities
The 2026 edition carries the theme “Port Cities” — a celebration of the musical cultures born where land meets sea, and where trade routes carried both goods and sounds across continents. From Lebanon to Cameroon, Brazil to the United States, India to Ethiopia, the invited artists come from coastal cultures deeply shaped by maritime exchange.
Confirmed artists for the Gnaoua World Music Festival 2026
The opening concert at Moulay Hassan Square brings together:

Mehdi Nassouli (Morocco) — one of the most celebrated young maâlems, opening the festival
i Buhoro (Rwanda) — traditional Rwandan troupe in cross-cultural collaboration
Sara Moullablad (Morocco) — rising Moroccan voice
Ganavya (India) — devotional and experimental vocalist
Sylvain Barou (France) — Celtic-African fusion master on flute

Further confirmed artists across the three days include:

47SOUL (Palestine/Levant) — electronic dabke meets shaabi and hip-hop
Yasmine Hamdan (Lebanon) — art-pop rooted in Arabic song tradition
Hoba Hoba Spirit (Morocco) — beloved Casablanca rock and chaabi legends
Oudaden (Morocco) — icons of Amazigh music
Maâlem Mohamed Montari — fusing with Badume’s Band and Selamnesh Zemene (Ethiopia)

The full lineup is published at the official festival website and continues to be updated as the event approaches.

What to Expect: Day-by-Day at the Festival
Thursday 25 June — The Opening Parade
The festival begins not on a stage but in the streets. The traditional parade of maâlems moves through Essaouira’s medina in the late afternoon — a ritual procession that sets the spiritual tone for everything that follows. It is one of the most photographed and emotionally resonant moments of the entire festival.
The main stage opens at 20:30 with the opening concert. Later-night sets run well past midnight, and across the medina, smaller performances and private Gnawa lila (spirit-ceremony) gatherings continue until the early hours.
Friday 26 June — Peak Day
Friday is the densest day. Concerts begin from 19:00, with the biggest fusion sets running from 23:00 onward. During the day, the Berklee at Gnaoua workshop — a six-day intensive program for musicians from 30+ countries, led by Berklee College of Music faculty — holds sessions open for audiences to observe.
The Talking Tree gathering, inspired by African oral tradition, creates a space where artists, journalists, and festival visitors exchange ideas on music preservation and cultural identity.
Expect spontaneous maâlem–international artist collaborations that are never rehearsed, always surprising, and always unrepeatable.
Saturday 27 June — The Grand Finale
The closing night is traditionally the most anticipated of the three. Main stage sets from 21:15 onward build toward a closing concert designed to bring together the week’s encounters. Saturday morning and early afternoon — before the concerts begin — are ideal for exploring Essaouira’s souks, harbour, and ramparts at a relaxed pace.

Practical Information for the Gnaoua Festival 2026
Tickets and admission
The majority of performances at the Gnaoua World Music Festival 2026 are completely free. The main open-air concerts at Place Moulay Hassan and throughout the medina require no ticket. For reserved and seated sections at the main stage, expect to pay 300–500 MAD per day. Private Gnawa lila ceremonies (zaouia) are around 250 MAD and offer a more intimate experience of the tradition.
Getting to Essaouira from Marrakech
Essaouira is approximately 170 km from Marrakech — around 2.5 hours by road. There is no direct train. Options include:

CTM or Supratours bus from Marrakech Gare Routière (budget-friendly, ~2.5 hours)
Shared taxi from Bab Doukkala area
Private transfer or guided tour (most comfortable, especially for groups — see our tour package below)

Accommodation — book early
This is the single most important logistical point: Essaouira accommodation sells out months in advance during the festival. The city’s normal population multiplies several times over. Riads inside the medina are closest to the action, but they fill up fastest.
If you are planning to attend, securing accommodation before May is strongly recommended.
What to pack

Comfortable walking shoes (medina streets are uneven cobblestones)
A hat with a chin strap — Essaouira is famously windy even in June
Light layers for the evenings (Atlantic air is cool after dark)
Cash in Moroccan dirhams (MAD) — many vendors don’t accept cards
A portable phone charger for long festival nights

Visit the Gnaoua Festival 2026 from Marrakech — Our Guided Tour
Planning the logistics of the Gnaoua World Music Festival 2026 yourself — transport, accommodation in a city that fills up completely, knowing which stages to be at and when — is genuinely challenging, especially for first-time visitors to Morocco.
Your Guide to Morocco offers a fully managed multi-day tour from Marrakech to Essaouira built specifically around the festival dates. We take care of everything:

✅ Private transport from Marrakech to Essaouira and back
✅ Curated riad accommodation in the medina for the festival nights
✅ Airport pickup from Marrakech Menara (RAK)
✅ Local guide on the ground in Essaouira
✅ Insider knowledge of the best concerts, venues, and hidden lila ceremonies
✅ Full 3 festival days covered — June 25, 26, and 27

You focus entirely on the music. We handle everything else.
This tour is available to individuals, couples, families, and groups. Spots are limited because Essaouira accommodation is finite during the festival.
👉 Contact us to book your Gnaoua Festival 2026 tour from Marrakech or reach us directly via WhatsApp for a fast response.
Also see our guide to the 15 best Moroccan festivals in 2026 if you want to plan your trip around more cultural events.

Frequently Asked Questions
When is the Gnaoua World Music Festival 2026?
The 27th edition of the Gnaoua World Music Festival takes place from June 25 to 27, 2026 in Essaouira, Morocco.
Is the Gnaoua Festival free?
Yes — the majority of concerts are free and open to everyone. The medina streets, beaches, and outdoor squares host performances at no cost. Reserved seating at Place Moulay Hassan costs 300–500 MAD per day.
How do I get from Marrakech to Essaouira for the festival?
The road journey from Marrakech to Essaouira takes approximately 2.5 hours (170 km). There is no direct train. You can take a CTM/Supratours bus, a shared taxi, or book a private transfer. We offer a complete guided tour that includes transport and accommodation — contact us for details.
What is Gnawa music?
Gnawa (also spelled Gnaoua) music is a West African spiritual tradition brought to Morocco centuries ago. It is led by master musicians called maâlems and includes hypnotic percussion, three-stringed guembri bass lute, iron castanets (qraqeb), and spiritual call-and-response vocals. UNESCO inscribed it as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2019.
Where should I stay for the Gnaoua Festival in Essaouira?
Riads inside the medina are the best option — close to all the concert venues and part of the atmosphere. They sell out extremely fast. Book at least 2–3 months in advance, or let us manage your accommodation as part of our guided tour package.
Can I attend as a first-time visitor to Morocco?
Absolutely — the Gnaoua Festival is one of the most welcoming events in Morocco, and Essaouira is one of the country’s most relaxed and internationally oriented cities. That said, first-time visitors benefit significantly from local guidance for navigating the festival, especially for accommodation and knowing where the best performances happen.

Final Thoughts
The Gnaoua World Music Festival 2026 is more than a music event. It is three days of living cultural heritage, spontaneous cross-continental collaboration, and a city entirely transformed by sound. Whether you are a music lover, a cultural traveller, or simply someone looking for an experience that cannot be replicated anywhere else, Essaouira in late June deserves a place on your 2026 calendar.
The only question is whether you want to navigate the logistics alone — or let us take care of everything from Marrakech.
👉 Book your guided Gnaoua Festival tour from Marrakech

Last updated: May 2026. Festival details sourced from festival-gnaoua.net and confirmed press releases.
