From electronic sets atop the city walls to dancing by the pool at the five-star Sofitel Golf & Spa, MOGA surprised me by showing how historic Essaouira was, in fact, an ideal setting for a modern festival crowd.
South of the ‘Red City’ of Marrakech, Essaouira (pronounced essa-weera) is a coastal town of winding alleyways and windswept walls, with gold sandy beaches and eclectic Maghrebi culture.
Cool, compact and creative, the ‘Windy City of Africa’ is a place of two halves, where a centuries-old medina (old town) full of scented spice and chattering street sellers sits cheek by jowl with the lapping waves of the Atlantic Ocean.
Known as Skala de la Ville, these walls were built in the 18th century when Essaouira was occupied by the Portuguese; if you’ve watched Game of Thrones, you’re bound to recognise them as the site where Daenerys Targaryen found her Unsullied soldiers.
Africa’s ‘windy city’ is eclipsed by bigger names, but I can’t wait to go back I must admit that Morocco had never been at the top of my bucket list.
