Fez — The second edition of the Casablanca Talents Festival for Culture and Local Arts, CASA WE ART 2025, kicked off on Saturday with a program designed to uncover emerging artists and affirm the city’s role as a dynamic cultural hub.
Hosted in Morocco’s economic capital, the annual festival focuses on local creativity across disciplines and on giving young Casablancans a stage to test and refine their work.
A platform for local creativity
Abdelatif Naciri, Deputy President of Casablanca’s municipal council in charge of cultural and sports affairs, described the festival as a key tool to back homegrown talent.
He said the event is “a major moment and a means of supporting local creativity,” and framed it as a “strategic initiative to enable young people to showcase their energies in various artistic fields.”
For the city, the festival is part of a broader effort to push Casablanca beyond its business image and assert its status as a center of innovation and cultural production. Naciri underlined that the goal is to open new spaces where young residents can express their ambitions and sharpen their skills.
Professional standards for a local scene
CASA WE ART is organized by Casablanca Events and Animation, the city-owned company behind several major events. Its director general, Mohamed Jouahri, said the festival is also about raising the bar for even larger cultural projects.
By overseeing the festival, he explained, the company aims to “establish a professional model” for managing major cultural events in the city. The idea is to craft a complete artistic experience that showcases the value of local creativity, while giving participants a fair and motivating competitive environment.
Jouahri described the festival as a strategic cultural project that organizers are keen to improve each year so it can grow into an annual platform for discovering talent and generating new artistic opportunities in Casablanca.
Competitions for students and young adults
The festival’s program is open to a wide range of creative practices and focuses on competitions as a way to channel and reveal potential. Official contests and university-level challenges are set up to welcome participants from different age groups.
In this second edition, the competitions target adults and university students aged 18 and over. The format is meant to bridge the gap between amateur practice and more structured, professional pathways, while keeping the spotlight firmly on artists from the city.
Honoring Casablanca’s artistic figures
Beyond its forward-looking dimension, CASA WE ART 2025 also looks back at the paths that have already marked the city’s history.
This year’s edition will honor several leading figures from Casablanca who have built notable careers in theater, music, visual arts, and other fields. Organizers say these tributes are meant to underline how much of the city’s cultural life has been shaped by local artists who stayed connected to their neighbourhoods and communities.
By combining competitions for new talents with recognition for established names, the festival positions itself as a bridge between generations — and as a reminder that Casablanca’s creative story is still being written by its own residents.
