CASABLANCA—The 24th edition of L’Boulevard Festival ended on September 20, 2026. It commemorates yet another successful run of showcasing alternative music and urban culture in North Africa. The event which is held at the Stade du R.U.C. in Casablanca’s Oasis attracts over 20,000 people and showcases up and coming alternative artists.
Day 3 Highlight: Metal’s Historic Night
The event touches on different genres of music and on September 18th, 2026 the R.U.C. stadium was home to numerous heavy metal and rock bands that shook the stadium with their electric performances.
Sotherion: Kicking off the professional metal segment of the evening, Sotherion put on an astounding display of atmospheric black metal music. Their act consisted of unrelenting blasts, musical technicalities, and dark and engrossing stage presence that instantly set the right climate for the concert.
Suicide Machine: Coming back on to the stage as former winners of Tremplin (springboard) contest, the band Suicide Machine showed incredible artistic progress. The Moroccan group played a heavy mix of death metal and hardcore band and showed such tight stage presence that speaks volumes about the health of local music scene.
Sepultura (The Headliner): The major show stopper of the night was Brazilian thrash metal legends Sepultura. They put on a heavy show as part of their farewell tour.
Crowd Dynamics and Atmosphere:
The main highlight of L’Boulevard 2026 was the vivid synergy between the performers and the listeners. The heavy metal performance energized the audience, resulting in spectacular mosh pits and circle pits coupled with unending crowd surfing demonstrations. The musical encore took place in a tranquil atmosphere of mutual understanding.
The rest of the festival ground was characterized by its distinctive friendly and tolerant atmosphere. The Souk L’Boulevard cultural area was a very lively place where people could see a contemporary acrobatic performance from the Colokolo circus or watch break dancing battles in the Liquid Bridge area.
The 24th Tremplin Competition of L’Boulevard Festival hosted at the R.U.C. stage selected and presented emerging artists and groups over a period of three days. Artists and groups presented original songs to receive training and financial awards. The best songs and artists were recognized at the end of the competition.
Juries evaluated contestants’ originality, and overall artistic presentation and performance. The best projects were awarded and recognized.
The best project in the category of Rap and Hip-Hop was awarded to Shinohidden from Berkane and BrownY Original from Casablanca in second place. The project Metrotune from Casablanca and Settat won the first place award in the category of Fusion and Contemporary Music and the second place was awarded to the project Arinass from Fes. The project Lixivia from Salé won the first place in the category of Rock and Metal and the second place was awarded to the project Darih from Casablanca.
The Importance of the Competition’s Outcomes: The emphasis of the competition goes far beyond winning. Both runners-up will receive training from renowned professional music and performance facilities (Boultek), and studio recording sessions at the HIBA studio, as well as slots on the performance stage for the international band music acts.
L’Boulevard 2026 demonstrated once more that an independent and community-based festival can reach high levels of production without losing its true essence. Connecting local artists with world-known icons, the great festival of Casablanca sets the bar for the live alternative music scene in the region.
Stay metal, stay safe & take care, STAY ROCK ERIANS!
Photography: Chadi Ilias, Hicham Laabd, and Abdelhamid Belahmidi.
