International Rails Festival

International Rails Festival is one of the famous festivals in Mali about railways. Mali may not currently have passenger rail service, but this three-day festival still takes place every June in Kayes, the "City of the Rails". Train seminars and debates are held alongside dance performances, concerts, bike races, and wrestling matches across Mali and neighboring Senegal.

The highlight of the International Rails Festival is a huge concert at the Makoro Sissoko Stadium that brings together a wide range of artists including Kayes' regional orchestra, acrobats from Ghana, and Boubacar Kanté, Kamaldine, and Sékouba Bambino from Guinea, which kept Kayesian public for more than four hours. These artists, in turn, have wowed with large-scale performances at major festivals. An unprecedented show will continue the next day with performances from rap artists such as Master Soumy, Osbi, Iba one, Gaspi, Abou Flow, and many more local artists.

• Organization time: May or June every year
• Location: Kayes, Mali