Why music festivals are the key to happiness

Jul 29, 2025 – 5.00am

Gift this article

Subscribe to gift this article

Gift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe.

Subscribe now

Already a subscriber? Login

On a stadium-sized stage next to the Atlantic Ocean in Essaouira, Morocco, musician Omar Hayat is wielding a guimbri bass lute in front of a crowd of 20, maybe 30,000 people.

It’s the annual Gnawa and World Music Festival, billed as ‘the biggest jam session on the planet’ – a sprawling, largely free event, which is regarded as one of the top destination music festivals in North Africa and, arguably, the world. Young men, older women and selfie-taking teenagers chant along, football terrace style, to the music of this Gnawa maâlem, or master musician, the roar of their voices rising and falling with the sound of waves crashing against the town’s great stone ramparts.

Loading…

_{Images are for reference only.Images and contents gathered automatic from google or 3rd party sources.All rights on the images and contents are with their legal original owners.}