Fez — The “Gnaoua Art and Cultures of the World Festival” is set to return to Montreal from April 24 to 26, according to promotional material online by organizers, who are presenting the event as its third edition.
The announcement points to another North American showcase for a musical tradition firmly rooted in Morocco, with a growing presence abroad.
The festival poster features Maâlem Hamid El Kasri, Maâlem Omar Hayat, Maâlem Hassan Boussou, Maâlem Rachid Salamate, and Maâlema Hind Ennaira. Together, the selection suggests a program that brings together established Gnaoua masters and artists who extend the tradition’s contemporary reach.
The festival’s public messaging presents the event as a celebration of “world cultures,” yet its center of gravity remains unmistakably Moroccan. This is evident in the presence of artists such as Hamid El Kasri, one of the most recognized names in Gnaoua music, and Hind Ennaira, who has drawn growing attention as one of the few women to master the guembri, the three-string instrument central to Gnaoua performance.
A Moroccan tradition on an international stage
Gnaoua music has become one of Morocco’s most visible cultural exports, blending spiritual ritual, rhythm, and performance into a form that resonates far beyond the North African country.
The official “Gnaoua and World Music Festival” platform describes the Essaouira event as a celebration of living culture, fusion, and musical exchange, a language that also helps explain why Montreal has become a natural host city for a festival built around the same heritage.
Montreal’s multicultural identity makes it an ideal setting for such a gathering. A festival like this does more than present concerts. It places Moroccan heritage in dialogue with diaspora audiences, curious local listeners, and broader conversations about cultural transmission, identity, and belonging.
The timing also points to the growing international appetite for Gnaoua beyond its traditional heartlands. Events celebrating the genre increasingly move between Morocco, Europe, and North America, showing how an art form once rooted in intimate spiritual spaces can reach global audiences without fully losing its original depth.
