Gnawa festival gets up to 400,000 people, 'great success', Organizers

The 7th edition of the Gnaoua and World Music Festival wound up, in Essaouira Sunday, after gaining a record attendance of up to 400,000 people, according to organizers who deemed this year's edition " a great success."

The festival that kicked off June 24 featured several Moroccan and international artists including eminent Cuban pianist Omar Sosa, and Joe Zawinul, founder of the famous group Weather Report.

Essaouira festival is currently one of the most important cultural rendezvous both at the national and international levels, as it helped develop the city of Essaouira and preserve its heritage in such a way as it has become a heritage of humanity.

According to organizers, since its inception in 1998 the festival of Essaouira has become a major cultural event as evidenced by the increasing number of spectators which rose from 20,000 in 1998, to 200,000 in 2003 and up to 400,000 this year. The festival has also drawn over 10,000 visitors from abroad.

The festival provides a platform for exchanges and a meeting point of music and dialogue between foreign artists and the mystical musicians of the Atlantic city of Essaouira. In this extraordinary melting-pot of musical fusion the master Gnawa invite players of jazz, pop, rock and contemporary World music to explore new avenues.

Gnawa are the descendents of slaves originating from Black Africa who established brotherhoods throughout Morocco. They are made up of master musicians (maâlem), metal castanet players, clairvoyants, mediums and their followers. They are at the same time musicians, initiators and healers, blending African and Arabo-Berber customs. Despite being Muslims, the Gnawa base their ritual on djinn (spirits) straight from the African cult of possession.

The most spectacular and important ceremony is the Lila, whose function is essentially therapeutic.