Casablanca – As the Jazzablanca festival celebrates its 19th edition, RFI spoke to its founder Moulay Ahmed Alami about how the event has evolved, its support for Moroccan artists and the wider cultural and economic impact on Casablanca.
RFI: You say Jazzablanca is "the soul of Casablanca"... what do you mean by that?
Moulay Ahmed Alami: For me, Casablanca is a huge melting pot. It is a city that welcomes people from all over Morocco – people who have fled drought, people who hope to make their fortune... it's a business city par excellence, and the city with the most jobs.
As a result, it has been shaped by a whole host of influences, both Moroccan and international as it was under French protectorate, the Spanish were once settled here, and there's Portuguese influence too. After that, we Moroccans kept to ourselves for years, but now we’re starting to open up again.
[The festival] is a huge musical and intergenerational melting pot. There are people here from all over the world and from all over Morocco.
RFI: You want Jazzablanca to serve as a springboard for young artists, how does it fulfil that role?
MAA: We’ve set up a free public stage at the Parc de la Ligue Arabe. There has always been a public stage aimed at providing the best possible conditions for young talent.
Tonight [Tuesday] for example, we have a programme featuring Small X, AMG and Saib – a brilliant French band, a fusion of jazz and hip hop, with a producer behind some major local hits.
We always try to highlight both the jazz and urban elements, along with various influences, to offer something new to this audience to shake things up a bit, to present them with things they’re not used to – whilst at the same time offering them Robbie Williams [this year's headliner] if that’s what they want.
We don’t want to just book international headliners, we have our own local identity. So we’re trying to seek out Moroccan talent from all over, mix them with the rest of the world, and create this brilliant fusion.
RFI: You said that it’s more than just the fee that brings artists here...
MAA: Today, there’s a real appeal to Morocco in general. Since the Africa Cup of Nations and the 2022 World Cup, Morocco has become very attractive and Jazzablanca has grown. These various developments mean that today we’re able to attract international stars. We had Ben Harper in 2022, that was also a catalyst.
RFI: How does the festival benefit Casablanca and Morocco more broadly?
MAA: It’s a real asset. It puts the city on the map and brings people so much joy. The feedback we’ve received has been incredible. Last year, we received a lovely message from a festival-goer who said: "I don’t want to live in Casablanca any more, I want to live in Jazzablanca."
We've created a sort of micro-village within Casablanca, with its own ecosystem. There are 1,800 people working for the festival – add the artists to that and it comes to 2,500 people.
Every festival has an impact on its local ecosystem, and we’ve made a choice. Right at the start, I set up a cultural enterprise. We didn’t opt for the voluntary organisation model, so we don’t receive any public funding. There are no volunteers, we pay everyone to work. We have over 200 businesses involved in the festival.
Plus, there are the people staying in hotels, using taxis, spending money in the city, and the tourists who come to Casablanca. So it has a greater impact than we’d imagined, but not as much as I still hope for – we’re still keen to take Jazzablanca to the rest of the world.
RFI: One last question... what’s your prediction for Thursday evening’s World Cup quarter-final between France and Morocco?
MAA: Beyond Thursday’s France versus Morocco match, I think the energy of the World Cup has added something truly special. People are going straight from watching a football match to a concert, then to another concert, so it never stops. And, well, Morocco are going to win, obviously...
