A New Chapter Of Oasis Festival Is Cooking. Interview With Marjana Jaidi

by Alexandra Mansilla

A New Chapter Of Oasis Festival Is Cooking. Interview With Marjana Jaidi

19 Dec 2024

Photo: Vlad Solovov

If you have been to Marrakech, chances are you have experienced the Oasis Festival — a festival that brought electronic music’s biggest names to Morocco and became a mainstay in North Africa’s festival circuit. And if you haven’t been to Marrakech, you have probably heard about this festival and dreamed of attending it.

This year marked the last dance of the Oasis Festival. Was it spectacular? Oh yes! What is next? We spoke with the festival’s founder, Marjana Jaidi, at IMS Dubai — and covered much more.

— Hi Marjana! We will definitely talk about the amazing Oasis Festival, but first, I would love to ask — you were a music photographer and reporter before Oasis, right? How did the transformation to becoming the festival’s founder happen?

— I had the idea for Oasis right at the very beginning of my photography and journalism career. But at the time, I had only been to a few festivals, and I thought, if I am going to do a festival well, I need more experience. So, I told myself, this isn’t the right time yet.

I spent about four more years travelling to festivals and photographing them. Since I already knew I wanted to start my festival, that time was really valuable. It allowed me to see what I liked and what I didn’t like. I also did video interviews with festival-goers, asking them questions about what they enjoyed at each festival. It was really like a period of market research that prepared me to eventually launch my own festival.

— After your conversations with festival-goers, combined with your own experience as a photographer, journalist, and festival attendee, what were some things you wanted to avoid when creating your own festival? Or were there certain aspects you absolutely loved and wanted to include?

— It was really more about what I liked. For example, I took the idea of a champagne bar from a festival in Finland or the idea of pool parties from the Winter Music Conference, where they had these amazing poolside events. I thought, "I definitely want a pool party at my festival."

But if there’s one thing I did want to avoid, it was the experience I had at a festival where the DJ was so far away that you couldn’t even see them. I remember thinking, "I don’t want my festival to ever feel so big that you can’t even see the DJ’s movements or their energy." So, I knew I wanted something more intimate.

Oasis Festival / Photo: Khris Cowley for Here and Now

— Okay, great. So, let us talk about the Oasis Festival. You launched it in 2015, right? And now Oasis 2024 is the last festival. Why?

— Yes, let me call it the final one of this chapter.

— What does it mean?

— Well, it means the market is changing. I think the way people experience events today is a bit different.

At Oasis, we have incorporated culture — like having a museum on site or debuting an art collection. But to do that for just three days feels like a waste. That is why we want to open a venue that allows us to host long-term art installations while also changing the format. Instead of just a three-day festival, we can do things like a one-day lineup or a one-off concert, while still incorporating our signature cultural touch.

It doesn’t always have to be electronic music, either. Having our own venue gives us a home base where we can be more flexible and explore different music genres and experiences.

— The venue… do you mean Cultivora? I just saw it mentioned in the caption of your Instagram account and the festival’s Instagram account.

— Oh, you are very well-researched. I love this! Yes, Cultivora is going to be the name of the venue.

The name actually came from a moment I had after attending Sonar, back when I was a music photographer. I was with someone who gave me a hard time about eating meat, and I started thinking, if a carnivore is a consumer of meat, then a cultivore could be a consumer of culture — hence Cultivora.

Oasis Festival / Photo: Vlad Solovov

— Our conversation is happening during IMS Dubai. So, for those who might not know, how would you describe the music scene in Morocco from your perspective?

— What I find really interesting — and what I love — about Morocco is how much the DJ scene has developed since we started. In the beginning, during the first few years, Moroccan artists were mostly just opening the festival. They would play at 4 o’clock, 6 o’clock, the early slots, and that was it.

But today, there is so much talent in Morocco. Not only do we now have an entire stage dedicated to Moroccan artists, and they make up 50% of our lineup, but there is also more talent than we can even book. I couldn’t even book every artist I wanted because there just wasn’t enough room. It is a big change from before when you would book everyone you knew because there wasn’t as much happening. Now, there is an overwhelming amount of talent, and that is incredible to see.

— Would you love to highlight some names?

— Sure. Well, you know, Amine K is definitely one of the OGs. He has played the festival every single year and has been around for a long time. Driss Bennis, the founder of Casa Voyager, also has a really interesting sound and is doing great things abroad.

Other interesting artists include Kosh, Polyswitch, Capra, Sodfa… I feel bad because I am leaving so many people out, but there really is a lot of talent in Morocco right now; we would be here all day if I had to name everyone.

Mbari House / Instagram: @marjaidi

— Also, you have Mbari House. Yeah. Could you tell us more about it, please?

— The Mbari House was a concept I created with my friend and collaborator, Janine Gaëlle Dieudji. At the time we met, she was the exhibitions director at MACAAL, the Museum of African Contemporary Art at Al Maaden in Marrakesh. At Oasis, we wanted to create a space that wasn’t just about electronic music. The year before, we collaborated with MACAAL, and they set up a small museum at the festival.

For our second collaboration, we wanted to introduce music into that space. Janine came up with the name Mbari House, inspired by the Mbari Club in Nigeria, Africa, that brought together people from different artistic disciplines to collaborate and create. The concept really stems from that collaborative spirit.

We worked with Art Comes First, a fashion and art collective, for the first Mbari House in 2019 at Oasis. The second time was at a standalone event at Hassan Hajjaj’s tea house in Marrakesh when he was opening it. And the third time, we brought Mbari House back to the festival for Oasis 2023.

It is essentially an art and fashion space that also includes music, blending those creative elements together.

by Alexandra Mansilla