Faouzi Skali returns to the Fez Sacred Music Festival

NEWS FLASH!  NEWS FLASH! NEWS FLASH !

For the last few weeks, The View from Fez has had to keep quiet about some amazingly good news. Now, we can officially announce that Faouzi Skali, the founder and inaugural director of the Fez Sacred Music Festival is to return to take charge of the festival once again.

Dr Faouzi Skali - photo Sandy McCutcheon

The return of Faouzi Skali was by invitation of the Director General of la Fondation Esprit de Fès. The good news is also that with Dr Skali as Director General of the Sacred Music Festival we will see a return to the vision that first created the festival. The Sufi Festival will now come under the Fondation Esprit de Fès so there will be a continuity of direction that will benefit both festivals.

We can also announce that in 2011 the Sufi Festival will take place between April 15 and 18.

It is to be hoped that Dr Skali will also bring back many of the talented team who worked with him over the years and who departed when he and the festival parted company.

Reaction around the city of Fes has been overwhelmingly positive.

"This is the best news for the city of Fez in a long time," said one well known business identity. "Not just the Festival, but the city as well, because we need people who have a vision that is about peace and harmony, not simply of making a profit."

And in the Medina of Fes, the reaction is just as upbeat. As one riad owner, who caters for tourists, told The View from Fez, "I can now tell my guests that the great days of the festival will return. I am very excited that Faouzi is back,"

Dr. Faouzi Skali, an anthropologist and an ethnologist; he is a professor from the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Fes; an author of many publications including "La Voie Soufi" (The Soufi Path), "Traces de Lumiere" (Traces of Light) and "Le Face à Face des Cœurs: Le soufisme aujourd'hui" (A Dialogue of hearts: Sufism Today).

The team at The View from Fez are also thrilled that Faouzi Skali will take control of the festival again. Over the years we have worked closely with the festival and have been the major source of news and reviews for readers and news organisations around the world. We wish Dr Skali great good fortune in his new position and look forward to working closely with him and his team, inshallah !