Le Guess Who? 2017: programme announced

If genres such as noise rock or IDM are your thing, then Le Guess Who? (9-12 Nov) is for you, but you can expect far more than that from the four day event, with this year’s festival featuring stages curated by Perfume Genius, Grouper, Shabazz Palaces and Han Bennink as well as the festival Basilica Soundscape to name just a few announced so far. From Bulgarian women's choir Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares to jazz icon Pharoah Sanders, it’s set to be a stellar edition.

Teaming up with Jerusalem In My Heart, the festival are also hosting several African-American and Middle Eastern performers, with expressive jazz singer Linda Sharrock, filmmaker and songwriter Alanis Obomsawin and Lebanon’s Abdel Karim Shaar ones not to miss across the city’s wide variety of venues, which will include churches, warehouses, galleries and theatres.

A special commission this year is the installation The Black Power Tarot – a 22 Tarot card display celebrating prominent African American personalities, created by Game of Thrones designer Michael Eaton and King Khan, who will also screen The Invaders – a documentary about the rise of the Memphis Black Power Group in 1967.

Today Le Guess Who? also announced the first performers for the general festival lineup. Among the many superb acts are Les Amazones d'Afrique, a collective of west African musicians campaigning for gender equality, dub poet Linton Kwesi Johnson and Libyan raï singer and pioneer of modern Arabic music Ahmed Fakroun, who will team up with Dutch-Turkish act Altin Gün in the spirit of the festival’s theme of collaboration.

In addition, running concurrently to the festival is the largest record fair in the world – The Mega Record & CD Fair, which will host over 500 stands.

Check out the full programme and buy tickets over at http://www.leguesswho.com/.