Sonic Pluriverse Festival: Global Echoes of Gnawa

In the organizer's words:

Sonic Pluriverse Festival

Global Echoes of Gnawa

Concerts, DJ sets, panel discussions, workshops

June-August 2026

Over five weekends in 2026, the annual Sonic Pluriverse Festival will bring the Moroccan Gnawa tradition to Berlin as a contemporary sound practice: rooted in West African stories of migration, diaspora and cultural transformation, connected to the Mediterranean and Afro-diasporic resonances. The festival, curated by Alaa Zouiten, understands these interconnections not as mere encounters between different styles, but as expressions of shared historical experiences that live on in different musical and spiritual forms and today bring forth new voices and alliances.

The festival will open with a Gnawa parade from Tiergarten to the House of World Cultures, carried by Maalem Hicham Bilali & Black Koyos and enriched by Berlin communities from flamenco and Afro-diasporic traditions such as Candomblé and Santería. The music program follows a clear idea: each festival day begins with a Gnawa formation that opens the stage for a second musical world - from flamenco and tarantella to Malian music - as a dialogue between different traditions.

Internationally renowned voices such as Baaba Maal meet formative positions in Gnawa music such as Majid Bekkas, Maalem Hassan Boussou and Gnawa Diffusion. At the same time, female perspectives take center stage with Asmaa Hamzaoui & Bnat Timbouktou and Bab L'Bluz, among others. The program concludes with a Lila, the central spiritual ritual of Gnawa culture.

The concert program will be complemented by panels, workshops on sound and dance practice and DJ sets. The panels will shed light on the Gnawa's historical and spiritual connections to the Yoruba tradition and its resonances in transatlantic cultures such as Candomblé and Lucumí; a further panel will be dedicated to neuroscientific perspectives on trance phenomena created by rhythm-based music.

With:

Vieux Farka Touré

Justin Adams & Mauro Durante with Alessia Tondo | Majid Bekkas & Bassekou Kouyaté

Baaba Maal & Daande Leñol

Aficionado Flamenco Moro | Aly Keïta | Hassan Boussou

Asmaa Hamzaoui & Bnat Timbouktou

Moonlight Benjamin | Bab L' Bluz

Mehdi Nassouli | Gnawa Diffusion

Price information:

24€ / reduced 20€