Mawazine Festival wraps up

The 4th Mawazine-Rythmes du Monde Festival pulled down curtains Wednesday after a week-long party.

The closing night featured Abdelwahab Doukkali who staged the new born "Birth of a Prince," a concerto he composed to commemorate the birth of Crown Prince, Moulay El-Hassan.

In a wonderful and unique dialogue between the musical instrument "Oud" and the symphonic orchestra of the gendarmerie royal, led by Oleg Rechetkine, the eternal Doukkali fascinated the public who filled Mohammed V Theatre.

An other place, an other rhythm as the duo José Fernandez and Duany Sanchez flamed the Grande Scène of Rabat. The rhythms of Andalusia interacted with the Cuban repertoire in a perfect miscegenation to push the crowd to a salsa dance.

All week long, the imperial city of Rabat lived on the vibrations of musical bands emanating from the five corners of the globe in a unique moment when Latin American vibrations embraced the African rhythms and Middle East music interacted in sheer symbiosis with the European sounds.

The festival featured top world artists notably the emotion-filled voice of the Benin's Kidjo, Venezuela's salsa maestro Oscar D'Leon, Brazilian samba star, Dona Inah, Cape Verde's Lura, Lebanon's Nassim Maalouf, Niger's Peuls Wodaabe band, Germany's Bando band, Spain's Rafael Jimenez and Radio Tarifa band and Tunisia's duo Dorsaf Hamdani and Khaled Ben Yahia.

Participants also included Moroccan singers Ihsan R'miki, Hadra Chefchaouen, Abdellatif Bayati and Salah Cherki.

The festival promises its aficionados a "best of" menu for the coming edition.