Beaches and VIP Concert Moments

The second day of the music festival, we decided to go to Sidi Kaouki, which is a town near to Essaouira known for having a particularly beautiful beach.  Youness is a surfer, so he goes there a lot and wanted to show us the area.  His sister decided to join us, along with her boyfriend.  Anna also had a friend named Ismael, in town from Casablanca for the festival, who was going to join us.  Ismael came by the house to meet us and after a while we got ourselves organized and got a taxi hired to take us to the beach.

When we arrived, there was a crazy haze in the air everywhere.  It looked like there was some sort of a mist or sand storm, but it didn’t feel sandy, just looked that way.  We walked down to the beach to sit by the water and enjoy the day.  Eventually the haze burned off, but before it did, I got a few really interesting pictures.

We went into the water after a while and really had a great time swimming in the waves, body surfing and enjoying ourselves.  By then, it had really gotten quite hot.  Poor Anna nearly got sunstroke, I think.  By the time the taxi picked us up to return to Essaouira we were all quite dehydrated and needed some food, but had definitely enjoyed our time in Sidi Kaouki.

Anna and I had really wanted to make it to the first concert at the beach stage that night because the previous evening we had actually met a couple of guys at a bar who were members of a band called Kif Samba.  They were a local group who were slated to play first that evening.  Although our goal was to get there on time, we had to get some food first, and by the time that actually was accomplished and we made it into town to the beach stage, we were too late to catch the guys’ show.  We were disappointed (and I felt a bit guilty because we had promised the guys we’d be there and I knew we’d run into them again because somehow, although busy and full of people, the town was still small enough that we kept seeing everyone repeatedly).  Nonetheless, we arrived during a reggae concert, so I really couldn’t complain.  The band playing was Senegalese, called Meta and the Cornerstones.  The show was really good.

After that concert, we headed back to the main square for the next show.  We had met up with Anna’s friend Issam as well.  Issam had a friend who worked at Taros, which is a very popular club right on the corner of the Place Moulay Hassan.  They were having a big VIP party, and he was able to get us in!  From the rooftop of this bar, you could look out over the entire square and watch the concert.

There was also a really large party raging, which went on long after the concert ended.  We had a blast, met some new people and partied until nearly dawn!

 

 

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The next morning, Anna and I had planned to meet up with her friend Mounem for some coffee.  I had my favorite thing ever – some nus-nus coffee, (half-half coffee – half-coffee, half-milk, which they somehow manage to keep in separate layers in the cup) – delicious and absolutely beautiful!  Full confession:  I may have followed that up with a cup of Verveine au Lait….

 

Anna and I had decided that we wanted to go to one of the artist Q & A sessions that they had been hosting in the daytime during the festival.  During these sessions, the artists would talk a little bit about what they did and then they would often play a song or two.  Anna was very keen on attending one of these and I thought that it would be very interesting to see.  It didn’t really occur to me that it would be either in Arabic or French until after we got there… Sure, there were things that were translated – from Arabic into French!  No worries, though.  Music transcends language.

We met up with Issam and managed to locate the area where they had been holding the musician talkbacks.  This day, we not only got to hear a talk with the lead of a group called Derdba, and with Meta of the Meta and the Cornerstones (who actually spoke quite a bit in English – yay!) but then, the great Maâlem Brahim El Belkani came to the stage.  This man is essentially a Gnawa music legend.  Not only was it fascinating and absolutely amazing to listen to the man perform, but there was one thing that he did which I really thought was impressive as well.  During his interview, the call to prayer sounded.  In all my time in Morocco thus far, when this happened – and it happens many times a day, I’ve never really seen anyone actually stop what they were doing.  The Maâlem actually requested that the entire event pause for a few moments of silence.  I really respected that.  And then, we were treated to an amazing intimate performance – here‘s a clip.  Also, here is a small audio clip of Meta, during his interview.

 

After that amazing Q&A session, Anna and I decided to get some tangine with Ismael at a restaurant Youness recommended.  I had been talking to my friend Anas who I couchsurfed with in Casablanca, as he had decided to come to Essaouira for the festiva with his friend Haitem (the one who cooks the most amazing alfredo ever)!  The two of them met us at the restaurant and we headed over to the beach from there to start another evening’s musical festivities.

We arrived during Derdba’s concert.  We had heard a couple of the guys from the band talking at the Q&A that afternoon, so it was neat to see them perform.  A group of us hung out at the beach stage for a while, staying long enough to hear an artist named Ayo.  Here‘s a clip of Ayo.  I finally got the chance to meet Rossina, Youness’ girlfriend(?) who, as it happens lives in Sidi Kaouki, rather than at his AirBnB where I was staying.  She is a Spanish-speaker, and is really nice, so I enjoyed trying to chat with her a little bit.

Then Anas, Haitem, Issam, Anna, Ismael, and I walked back into the central square to try and catch the concerts of Ibrahim Maalouf and Marcus Miller.  Ibrahim Maalouf is a world-reknowned trumpet player.  Unfortunately, we arrived near the end of his concert, but he did some fusion later that evening, so we were able to hear him play with the incredible bass player, Marcus Miller.  By then, some of us had made our way back into the VIP party at Taros, where we had a great view!  Marcus Miller also did some great fusion with Maâlem Mustapha Baqbou, a Gnaouan music group.  Overall, a fabulous day with incredible music!