The story
Festival International Triangle du Balafon in Sikasso
The Festival International du Triangle du Balafon is an international music festival centered on the balafon, the wooden xylophone central to Mande and Senoufo musical traditions, held in the southern Malian city of Sikasso near the borders of Burkina Faso and Cote d'Ivoire, a region known as the balafon triangle. The festival gathers balafon players and ensembles from Mali and neighboring countries for concerts and workshops celebrating the instrument's shared regional heritage.
Sikasso sits in Mali's far south, close enough to both Burkina Faso and Cote d'Ivoire that the city functions as something of a crossroads between the Mande cultural sphere to the north and west and Senoufo cultural areas extending south and east across the two neighboring countries.