Tifra Jazz: Where Jazz Meets the Living Memory of the Rif

Al Hoceima is preparing for three December days in which jazz will share the stage with the sounds and stories of the Rif. The first edition of Tifra Jazz, billed as an international jazz and roots music festival, takes place from 10 to 12 December 2026. Its programme brings together concerts, artistic residencies, oral poetry and encounters around musical transmission.

What makes this opening edition especially interesting for Agraw is the place given to living traditions. Alongside the evening concerts, the festival invites audiences to listen to the people who carry a repertoire, the words preserved in izran and the instruments through which younger musicians might find a voice of their own.

Two concerts, shaped by a week of shared creation

On Friday 11 December at 18:00, Centre culturel Moulay El Hassan hosts Kike Perdomo · Majid Bekkas & The Warriors. Under Perdomo’s musical direction, a week-long residency brings together Majid Bekkas, José Alberto Medina, Abdelfattah El Houssaini, Agustín Pérez Buenafuente and Carlos Pérez. The announced concert crosses jazz, blues and roots music, with additional guest contributions anticipated in the programme.

The following evening, Saturday 12 December at 18:00, the same venue welcomes Sound of Berberia Project. Emerging from the film Sound of Berberia, the project revisits North African songs through a changing ensemble and an encounter between rock and popular rhythms. The programme names Kino Ait Idrissen as musical director, alongside Imane Tifyur, Anass Chaiir, Mehdi Maouche and Juan Antonio Rodríguez Fernández. This concert, too, follows a week of residency in Al Hoceima.

Izran, memory and the people who keep them alive

The festival begins its public programme on Thursday 10 December at 18:00 with a meeting and performance by Tarwa n Cheikh Mohand, presented under the title Les derniers d’Al Hoceïma. According to the programme, the group took its inherited musical tradition to Europe in the 1990s, and three of its five members now continue that work. Chaïb will recount their history through memories, rhythms and songs.

On Friday 11 December at 11:00, writer and playwright Ahmed Zahid presents 1000 Izran. His work of collecting sung Amazigh verse opens a conversation about love, exile, celebrations, conflict and everyday life as held in oral memory. Musician and actor Mimoun Zanoun joins the encounter with songs and performances. The emphasis is on hearing these words as a living practice, rather than treating them only as material on a printed page.

A place for younger musicians

Saturday 12 December at 11:00 brings a workshop for participants under 25, led by Kino El Idrissi and Juan Antonio Rodríguez Fernández. It explores the possibilities of the Adjoun frame drum, the Zammar double clarinet and the Thamja traditional transverse flute, and asks how their sounds can meet jazz instruments and contemporary music.

A traditional-music competition with a prize of 10,000 dirhams also appears in the supplied programme. Its application details are marked as forthcoming in that document, so participants should check the organisers’ latest announcement before applying.

After the concerts: Tifra Jam

From 21:30 on each of the three nights, Tifra Jam will bring festival musicians and invited artists together for improvisation. Access and participation are by reservation; the venue remains to be confirmed in the programme. These sessions offer another setting for the festival’s central idea: allowing different musical languages to meet through the act of playing together.

For Al Hoceima, a new musical gathering

A festival cannot preserve a tradition simply by placing it on a stage. It can, however, create occasions for its musicians to be heard, for its stories to be shared and for its sounds to enter new conversations. By connecting residencies and concerts with poetry, workshops and intergenerational encounters, Tifra Jazz offers an opening worth following in the Rif’s cultural life.

Planning your visit

The two main concerts are announced at Centre culturel Moulay El Hassan, with limited places. Venues for the meetings, workshop and jam sessions are still marked as unconfirmed in the supplied programme. It does not specify ticket prices or a booking link. Check the organisers’ latest practical information before travelling or reserving. All programme times shown here are local to Al Hoceima.

Download the complete festival programme (PDF) ↗