The 19th edition of the Festival MED, in Loulé, took place from June 29 to July 1, 2023. The event attracted thousands of world music enthusiasts to the Historic Area of Loulé, Algarve.
Festival MED featured renowned artists from various musical backgrounds, making it a multicultural and unforgettable experience. Highlights included performances by West African sounds with R&B touches, a reggae legend, Portuguese musicians, and Cape Verdean music. The festival also offered other cultural elements like world literature, cinema, and street art.
Besides music, the festival embraced sustainability, incorporating the UN Sustainable Development Goals and promoting environmental initiatives. The festival’s unique atmosphere in the city’s old town added to the overall enriching experience for attendees.
“We are a festival outside the mainstream and that makes all the difference. People come here not only for the artists but above all for the set of sensorial experiences that may have, which does not happen in other events. We are very happy because we managed, once again, to provide these enriching experiences to those who passed through here, whether through music or simply enjoying a plate of Arabic food, reading a poem or watching a movie, giving a dancing feet at an improvised disco in the backyard of a house or a meeting of friends at this crossroad of people from various parts of the globe,” says the director of the Festival, Carlos Carmo.
Looking forward, the 20th anniversary of the Festival MED in 2024 will invite a guest country. “We are very committed to make it a great edition and that’s why we are preparing some news. We will, for the first time, have a foreign country as guest, and the first will be Morocco. They are our neighbors, a geography culturally different but which is important to know better. But there will be so much more to celebrate this moment and soon we will start announcing what is expected,” advances mayor Vítor Aleixo.
(headline image: Omar Souleyman at Festival MED 2023 – Photo courtesy of Câmara Municipal de Loulé)
Read Rafael Mieses’ review of the festival: Festival MED 23, The Freedom of Music for All
More information at festivalmed.cm-loule.pt/en/
Author: World Music Central News Room
World music news from the editors at World Music Central