Visa for Music is a performing arts festival that has brought contemporary music acts from Africa and the Middle East together since 2014. It has the distinction of being the first professional music market and festival in Africa and the Middle East. For four days in November of every year since its inception, musicians, lovers of African and middle eastern culture, and music professionals from all over the world gather in Rabat, the capital of Morocco, to enjoy the best of music and culture that Africa has to offer.
However, the festival is not just about the concerts and the showcases. It is also an avenue for business professionals in the music industry from all over to world to connect through conferences, speed-meetings, workshops, and training sessions to multiply encounters and open the field of possibilities in terms of collaborations.
In the ten years since the festival was first held, it has become one of the landmark music events in Africa, hosting 8400 professionals from 85 countries, 2052 artists from 35 countries, 400 exhibitors, 332 showcases, 41 conferences, meetings, and round tables, 29 workshops and trainings, 3060 speeds-meetings and other initiatives.
As this year is the landmark 10th year anniversary of Visa for Music. The event will feature many new events and meetings. One of the major highlights of the event will is that Visa for Music is hosting the Arts Connect Africa annual congress, which will bring music business professionals from across Africa together to meet, network and collaborate, and also enjoy the sights and sounds of Rabat. On the agenda for the ACA congress this year is creating strong regional professional music and culture networks across the continent.
The ACA congress in Rabat this year is particularly newsworthy because the ACA will also meet with the members of the Cultural Connections Latin America, a collective of music business professionals from Latin America to solidify the partnerships the two networks have and to create a roadmap for an engagement between African and Latin American business professionals. In the congress ACA will also be meeting the European Jazz Network, a collective of Jazz music professionals from Europe who have an interest in African music and culture and wish to find a market for Jazz music in Africa.
Follow us for more updates as we count down to this momentous festival…
