Wednesday, April 13, 2011

MAWAZINE Festival ~ Rhythms of the World



The 10th Mawazine World Rhythms festival will run from 20 to 28 May in the capital Rabat with a thrilling programme, organizers said at a press briefing in Skhirate (near Rabat).

The festival will take place at 9 Rabat venues: OLM Souissi, Espace Nahda' Yaacoub El Mansour, Scène de Salé, Bouregreg, Théâtre National Mohammed V, Chellah. Villa des Arts, and Grandes Artères de Rabat.


Aziz Daki, artistic director of the festival, reports that..."The invited artists have all confirmed their presence. Nelly Furtado is the only one who apologized. Due to a delay in her new album production, she decided to cancel her international tour and not only her performance in Morocco's biggest music festival."

The organizers said they managed to get the television rights for the concerts from all the scheduled artists. "This is important because on average, the festival is followed each year by about 7 million spectators,” said one of the organizers.

This year, the festival will remain true to the identity acquired four years ago: free performances will always be maintained by boosting Mawazine’s role as a platform for emerging talent in Morocco.

“With Mawazine, international artists accept to perform in Morocco and then attend other events,” explains one of the organizers.

Moreover, in ten years of existence the festival featured 6583 artists representing 60 countries.

As many as 746 concerts were held with more than 6 million viewers, representing an annual influx of about 2.3 million festival-goers.

Among the artists to appear are Kanye West (USA - Saturday, May 21), Sugababes (UK - Sunday, May 22), Yusuf Islam (UK - Monday, May 23), Earth, Wind & Fire Experience Featuring Al Mc Kay Et Les Sister Sledge (USA - Tuesday, May 24), Quincy Jones (USA - Wednesday, May 25), Joe Cocker (UK - Thursday, May 26), Lionel Richie (USA - Friday, May 27), Shakira (Columbia - Saturday, May 28), Rashed El Majid (Saudi Arabia - Sunday, May 22), Abdelouahab Doukkali (Morocco - Friday, May 27), Julian Marley (Jamaica - Saturday, May 21), Hoba Hoba Spirit (Morocco - Monday, May 23), Femi Kuti (Nigeria - Friday, May 20), Salif Keita (Mali - Saturday, May 21), The Mahotella Queens (South Africa - Monday, May 23), Papa Wemba (Congo - Tuesday, May 24), Youssou Ndour (Sénégal - Friday, May 27), Ute Lemper (Germany - Thursday, May 26. This is only a few of the dozens of artists performing.


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