At Theater De Regentes, Bouchra Arbaoui and Khalil Mounji opened a quieter doorway into Gnawa: focused listening, breath, resonance and the grounding pulse of the tradition.
A different mode of attention
Presented on the closing Sunday of Holland Gnawa Festival 2025, the session moved beyond the conventional concert frame. The encounter centred attention on rhythm, presence and the meditative dimension that runs through Gnawa musical practice.
Festival as transmission space
The session sat alongside concerts, a children’s percussion workshop and other forms of cultural exchange across The Hague. Its place in the programme reflected the festival’s wider purpose: presenting Gnawa not as a single stage genre, but as music, knowledge, ceremony and community.
The official Holland Gnawa Festival programme verifies the date, time, venue and participants. Hero visual is the festival’s official 2025 artist collage.