New dates for the Sahel Festival: Niamey from 20 to 29 November, and Maradi joins the party!

The countdown is back on. AECNA — the Association for the Emergence of Nigerien and African Culture — has unveiled the new dates of the 8th edition of the Sahel Festival & World Music: ten days of celebration, from 20 to 29 November 2026, under the patronage of Mr. Sidi Mohamed Almahmoud, Niger's Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture.

Two cities, one Sahel in celebration

In Niamey, the festival settles at Les Loisirs du Sahel, behind the CCOG, from 20 to 29 November. And the party doubles: Maradi hosts the festival in turn from 27 to 29 November. Maradi artist Boubé Poullo, confirmed on the bill, will perform in both cities — singing the Peul pulaaku before his own audience, in the city where he grew up.

Much more than concerts

The programme overflows the stage: concerts, a film screening and training, debates and round tables, a fair and exhibitions. And then there is the soul of the festival: the Cultural Caravan for Peace, carrying living-together from city to city — it was on one of its stops, in 2018, that the song for peace was born, now the gathering's unofficial anthem.

The first confirmed voices

Headlining, DIAS (Diassibo Tchiombiano), musician, painter and creator of Liptaako Reggae. Alongside him: Boubé Poullo, Oga le Slameur, crowned Best Slam Artist of Niger in 2022, and Princesse Diabaté, the Manding Wassolo voice from Burkina Faso. More names will follow: the Sahel has not finished making its voices heard.