Morocco - music
Discovering Rai music in Morocco
Monday 04 August 2008
In Oujda, Morocco, the second international festival of Rai music is a success. The festival gives young people a chance to forget their daily concerns about economic hardship.
Special Report Come along to this summer's festivalsMonday 04 August 2008
By Jean-Marie Lemaire in Morocco
For the second year in a row, the international festival of Rai music took place in Oujda, Morocco, at the end of July. Some thirty bands performed and nearly 400,000 people enjoyed a colourfully rich and musically diverse program.
The festival has become a breath of fresh air for this town. While enjoying performances from different Rai, Rap and Reggae bands, the energised audience had a chance to forget its daily concerns.
Oujda is only a few kilometres from Algeria. But here, conflicts between Morocco and Algeria are left to politicians. A good half of the artists performing at the Festival are from Algeria.
“Algerians and Moroccans have been brothers forever, and this allows for the love between the two people. I think it’s up to the politicians to let the people live together,” says Younes Megri, the festival’s director.
During the five-day Festival, politically-engaged artists spoke of support for the thousands of Africans trying to cross the Mediterranean. The town of Oujda is still one of the crossroads between Africa and Europe.
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