The largest live entertainment market on the African continent is back in Abidjan.
MASA 2026 takes over the Palace of Culture in Treichville, opposite the Plateau towers, with hundreds of performances — from storytelling to contemporary dance, from music to street arts — for a massive audience of all ages.
Among the highlights of this edition, a piece that has the effect of an explosion: on descend to Rue Princesse, by the Ivorian choreographer Massidi Adiatou.
A vibrant tribute to this landmark of Abidjan's urban culture, which disappeared in 2012, where he himself cut his teeth as a street dancer in the popular district of Yopougon.
“There is a source in this street that has allowed Ivorian culture to embrace the whole world. For me, as an artist and choreographer, with my young people whom I adore, I wanted us to tell this story — and for the whole world to see it, because it is beautiful, it has done beautiful things. And I don’t want it to stop,” explains Massidi Adiatou, choreographer.
Around twenty dancers hypnotize the audience for an hour and a half in an explosion of energy, carried by flamboyant carnival costumes.
Among them, Junior Frisson — whose real name is Kouassi Koffi — embodies the irresistible street heartthrob, the legendary seducer.
“Princess Street gives off good energy — all that is fulfillment, entertainment. And here, in the show, we represent Princess Street, but in the futuristic side. We imagine maybe 2030, what Princess Street will be like,” says Kouassi Koffi, aka “Junior Frisson”, a dancer.
In the bar conceived by Massidi Adiatou and his company New Black, the atmosphere is electric. Plays of light, alluring waitresses, alcohol flowing freely: the Rue Princesse is reborn before our eyes, transformed.
The young acrobats compete in virtuosity to a captivating soundtrack, bordering on trance.
Karel Tendjou, for her part, plays a charming waitress — and proudly claims the legacy of coupé-décalé.
"It's pure coupé-décalé. It's a dance whose objective is to bring joy. We share our energy, we share what we have that is joyful," explains Karel Tendjou, a dancer.
The Abidjan public, for their part, did not hide their pleasure.
"Words can't express it. It was... Wow! I'm used to watching shows, but these... I feel like they managed to fuse classical music with coupé-décalé into something never seen before."
The MASA shows continue at the Palais de la culture in Treichville and in several communes of Abidjan until this weekend.
The date has already been set for the next edition — in 2028.
