The Gnaoua World Music Festival celebrated its 25th year in 2025 originating in 1998 - Covid interrupted it for a couple of years. It started as a festival of Moroccan, 'Gnawa' local music but has grown to become a more eclectic event which now includes many international artists from the genres of jazz, pop, rock and contemporary 'world' music.​ It is held in Essaouira on the Atlantic coast of Morocco every June, itself a legendary venue for music having attracted world-renowned international musicians from as far back as the 'hippy' years of the late 60s and 70s. Jimi Hendrix visited many times. Aside from headliners on the main stage located in Moulay Hassan Square, sideline events take place throughout the streets of the town across the three Festival days.

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25th - 27th June are the dates of the 2026 Festival, and to get there, we'll travel overland from London by train all the way to Essaouira, on the western coast of Morocco. Aside from a couple of connecting bus rides, and a short, hour-long, fast-ferry crossing from Europe to Africa across the Strait of Gibralter, this will be a great rail adventure aswell as a huge festival event.

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We'll travel on an InterRail Global Pass which provides unlimited rail travel across Europe and represents by far the best value for long-distance, pan-European, overland trips. Of the many ticket permutations available, the four-days-in-a-month pass is both ideal and exceptional value-for-money. Once purchased, the only additional costs are for seat reservations required on some high speed services, although as Morocco isn't included on the pass travel in Africa will be the only additional rail cost. But prices are reasonable.

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From London St.Pancras International we'll take the EuroStar to Paris, then onward through France and Spain to visit Marseille, Barcelona, and Cordoba, all by high-speed daytime services, with a day or two spent between rail trips to explore all of these amazing cities en-route. Other journey permutations are possible of course, for example perhaps using the night-sleeper services in France and Morocco,  but there is plenty of time to review the trip before finalizing our route.

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Finally arriving at the southern tip of Spain in Algeciras, we'll take a short bus ride to Tarifa followed by an equally short fast-ferry crossing to Tangier to take us to North Africa.

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After a day or two soaking up the atmosphere of Tangier, our final rail trip runs from Tangier-Ville to Casablanca and onward to Marrakech, (perhaps staying over for a day). We have the choice of a (partly) high-speed day service or the legendary 'Marrakesh Express' sleeper which meanders gently across the desert through the night. The final leg of the trip will be a bus ride to Essaouria on the coast for the Gnaoua World Music Festival 2026.