The Village Nuits d’Afrique will welcome you from 3 p.m. with a workshop: Introduction to Djembe with Stève Viès!
Not to be missed, the entertainment at the Cabaret des Nuits d’Afrique: The young kbich drummers from Martinique with K’BICH Band; At the roots of lessa groove with Nda Chi and Carimbo, rhythms and traditions of the Amazon with Suraras de Tapajos.
Let yourself be led by the intoxicating performances on the outdoor stages of Loto-Québec at the Esplanade Tranquille and TD at the Parterre du Quartier des spectacles with Marisol y Los Chibolos, Zalam Kao, Les Frères Sissokho and Élage Diouf, Kizaba, Systema Solar.
New for this 40th edition, the Festival will take over rue Sainte-Catherine. Giant screen, retrospectives, sharing of memories, activities and walks with Kalabanté and spectacular projections!
COMPLETE SCHEDULE OF OUTDOOR PROGRAMMING (WORKSHOPS, EVENTS, CONCERTS, DJ SETS)
LOTO-QUÉBEC SCENE
WEDNESDAY JULY 15
MARISOL Y LOS CHIBOLOS PERU – QC July 15, 2026 • 3:30 p.m. Loto-Québec StageThe music of this self-taught, multidisciplinary artist, is free and mixed, in his image. His creative mashups, cobbled together on his MIDI keyboard, are a summary of his eclectic and iconoclastic tastes, ranging from Latin percussion to keb rap, from R&B to UKG, from reggaeton to afrobeats, from baile funk to electro in all its variations, etc., etc.
ZALAM KAO HAITI – ARGENTINA – TUNISIA – BRAZIL – QC July 15, 2026 • 5 p.m. Scène Loto-QuébecZalam Kao “embodies in his crossbreeding something like the vibrant Montreal musical spirit since the 1970s, that of an uninhibited meeting of cultures forming the mosaic that is our musical scene” (Le Devoir, 2026). The big winner of the 19th edition of the Sily d’or of world music skillfully twirls between jazz, funk and soul.
SAHRA HALGAN SOMALILAND July 15, 2026 • 7 p.m. Loto-Québec StageShe sings to exist, to resist. “Driven by the rock energy of the Lyon trio that accompanies her, Sahra Halgan has only one ambition: to place her country on the world map” (RFI, 2021). His raw and burning voice resurrects age-old melodies that strike uncompromising riffs and hypnotic drums, at the crossroads between Ethio jazz, Tuareg blues and garage rock.
TD SCENE
THE SISSOKHO BROTHERS & ÉLAGE DIOUF SENEGAL – QC July 15, 2026 • 6 p.m. TDÉlage Stage Diouf, whose Montreal career began at Nuits d’Afrique almost 30 years ago is with the 3 Sissokho brothers, Sadio, Fa and Noumoucounda, whose long careers are studded with collaborations with illustrious artists, they have known each other for a long time. This evening will be about sharing. And it will brew! Djembes, doun-doun, tama…
KIZABA DR CONGO – QC July 15, 2026 • 8:15 p.m. TD StageKizaba has never-ending news, with shows all over the world in recent months. The career of the author of Future Village (Disques Nuits d’Afrique, 2025) is booming. The afro-futurism of Révélation Radio-Canada 2024-2025, having fun with roots sounds, French touch, afrobeat, folk, dubstep and afro-pop-rock, summons the ancients and draws a future inhabited by their wisdom.
MAJOR EVENTS
SYSTEMA SOLAR (Colombia) TD Stage / 10 p.m. Made for dancing, the contagious sound of Systema Solar emerges from the pikos of the Colombian Caribbean coast. Part neighborhood party and part alternative scene, the shows of this “intrepid and crazy” collective (Billboard, 2017) are downright addictive.
THEATER PROGRAMMING JULY 15
VOICES OF THE WORLD Presented by RADIO-CANADA CHRIS COMBETTE (French Guiana) Wednesday July 15 / Club Balattou – 8:30 p.m. Chris Combette swings, with the intelligence of the heart, reggae, biguine, calypso, bossa nova and jazz, shaping music of rare finesse, attentive to words, rhythms and silences. This summer in Montreal, he is reunited with an audience he has loved since his first performance at Nuits d’Afrique in 2004.
LES ETOILES NUITS D’AFRIQUE presented by TV5 MondeTONTON IDRISS presents Manding Shael Bibration with Boubé (Ivory Coast-Mali-QC Wednesday July 15 / Club Balattou – 11:00 p.m. With his charisma and his little entertainer side, like an enthusiastic radio-hook host, Idriss the Black Viking was the perfect person to host this series which applauds the great influence, the modernism and versatility of Mandingo music.