It is the Nuits D'Afrique's 40th anniversary and my first ever time attending. This International Festival started a few days ago with paid-only shows, but from July 14 to 19 there are free shows taking place on two stages, with the shows alternating between the two.
Last night I watched the first three shows and during the third there was a thunderstorm that came in, so I decided to call it a night, even though the last show at 22h looked to be one I might have enjoyed.
First up was Chibane, from Algeria, he was very energized as a performer, his first two songs were in French language, and his next two were in Arabic language. The people around me in the audience were clearly mostly Algerian or north African, and some of them knew the words to his songs. I would skip this one if he came back again in the future.
Next was the Nakazoé Orkestra from Burkina Faso, they were a high energy danceable band with the wooden xylophone player on the right side (from audience perspective) having many solos. The drummer was really good, and you can see he is wearing long pants and a hoodie - it was 32c and very humid, he must have been sweating profusely under that outfit. I quite enjoyed their show even though I didn't understand any of the lyrics and would be happy to attend their show again.
The last show I went to looked interesting to me; an all female indigenous band from Brazil, from the Amazon to be more specific. Of course they would sing in a language I do not know, however, I found them charming and entertaining. I managed to watch 35 minutes of their 60 minute set when the dark clouds arrived and I began to make my way to shelter, and onwards home.
All in all it was a good day of concerts, liking the latter two I attended. This event isn't as crowded as the Jazz Festival was, however, it is possible that the later shows would have bigger audiences as I attended the 17h, 18h and 19h shows.
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