Shows and Events in Casablanca-Settat
Teams of horsemen in flowing white djellabas galloping in a straight line and firing black-powder muskets in unison is not a Casablanca sight; it happens 100 kilometers away, in a fairground built for exactly that spectacle, and it is worth planning a trip around rather than assuming it will turn up somewhere in the city.
Salon du Cheval d’El Jadida, the region’s biggest event
Held under royal patronage every October at the Parc d’Exposition Mohammed VI in El Jadida, the Salon du Cheval is one of the largest equestrian fairs on the continent. The centerpiece is Tbourida, sometimes called Fantasia: coordinated teams of horsemen charging in formation and firing vintage muskets in a single synchronized volley. The official Salon du Cheval site has the current program listed, and the 2026 edition runs October 13 to 18. Hotel rooms in El Jadida book out months ahead of the fair, so checking El Jadida hotel availability well before October matters more here than for almost any other date on this list.
Jazzablanca brings the international acts to Casablanca
Every July, the Anfa Hippodrome and a handful of urban stages host Jazzablanca, an internationally booked jazz, soul and world music festival that pairs global headliners with emerging North African artists. It runs alongside Casablanca’s regular nightlife rather than replacing it, so a Jazzablanca trip works fine as a standalone city visit without needing the wider region.
L’Boulevard is the younger, louder counterpart
Held in September at the R.U.C. stadium, L’Boulevard is Morocco’s pioneering alternative urban music festival, built around Moroccan hip-hop, metal, fusion and electronic acts and drawing a noticeably younger, more local crowd than Jazzablanca’s. The two festivals sit only two months apart on the calendar, which makes a summer-into-autumn Casablanca trip genuinely double up on live music if the dates line up. Neither festival requires advance planning on the scale Salon du Cheval does; walk-up day tickets are common for both, and the stadium and hippodrome venues sit close enough to central hotels that a taxi or tram ride covers the whole commute.
Film, on a smaller and steadier scale
The Festival International du Film de Casablanca runs its screenings across the city’s historic downtown art-house theaters, covering Arab, African and international cinema. It draws a quieter, more local audience than the music festivals do, and it is a reasonable way to see the inside of some of the same Art Deco cinema buildings that show up on architecture walking tours, several of them restored specifically to keep hosting screenings rather than being converted to retail space.
Booking around any of these
Casablanca hotel inventory tightens noticeably during Jazzablanca and L’Boulevard, both mid-city events drawing visitors who’d otherwise have no fixed date to plan around. A search for Casablanca hotel availability is worth running as soon as festival dates are confirmed rather than closer to the date. Visit Casablanca’s official site tends to carry the most current event calendar for anything smaller that doesn’t get international coverage.
Verdict: Salon du Cheval is the one event on this list worth building an entire trip around, since Tbourida doesn’t happen anywhere else in the country on this scale; the three Casablanca festivals are better treated as a bonus that happens to line up with a visit already planned for other reasons rather than a primary reason to book flights months out. For non-festival group outings the rest of the year, see the group activities guide .
Lock in El Jadida accommodation the moment Salon du Cheval dates are announced each year; rooms near the exhibition park are the first to go.