Fez Festival of Sufi Culture - Day Seven Review

After a confusing start to the night, brought about by a weather induced change of venue, the Fez Festival of Sufi Culture continued to deliver another great evening

A change of venue for the evening concert left a lot of non-French speaking visitors stranded. In the confusion some claimed it was to be held at the Prefecture Hall in Batha (the logical alternative) but by early evening some Americans said they believed it was still on at Bab Al Makina. Finally it became clear that the concert was not on in the Medina at all, but, as visiting tourist described,"out of walking distance somewhere in the Ville Nouvelle"! There appears to have been little attempt to communicate the news to non-French speaking patrons - no email, no tweet on Twitter. Eventually we found the venue location on the Festival Facebook page.

Ali Keeler in fine form

The venue turned out to be at the Seat of the Commune de Fez at Champs de Course, a place that few taxi drivers seemed to know. After a couple of false starts The View From Fez team arrived to find the venue packed to the rafters with local Moroccans keen to hear Marouane Hajji.

Marouane Hajji

The performance had two distinct groups - a group of Fez musicians including two backing singers for Marouane and on the other side the Firdaus Ensemble with Ali Keeler.

Ali Keeler is no stranger to Fez, having delighted audiences at festivals in 2014, 2015 and 2017. Like many of his performances in the past the night was a medley of their most popular songs - and not just their favourites, but the audience's as well.

The opening set from the Firdaus Ensemble captured the audience with its uptempo Andalusian flavour. Then it was the turn of Marouane Hajji. Although still young, Marouane is something of a superstar for the local people and once again he didn't disappoint. His vocal range has improved over the years and his musical gymnastics had the large audience clapping along.

A Celtic moment with an Irish low whistle

The attention then turned back to Ali Keeler and Firdaus, who obligingly gave a great performance of what is almost their signature tune - a Celtic air - complete with Irish whistle and the haunting uilleann pipes, the characteristic national bagpipe of Ireland. The air suddenly switched to a jig and with the unmistakable Arabic vocals, the audience lapped it up, with some women in the audience breaking into a traditional ululation!

There was also some beautiful cello playing by Salma Vives who was born in Elche near Alicante in 1983 and started learning the cello at seven.

Qanun player Yusuf El Mezghildi.

Another standout performer was the Qanun player Yusuf El Mezghildi. He was born in Tetouan, Morocco in 1962. From the age of 5, he attended the Sufi gatherings at the Zawiya Kittaniya. The percussionist Omar Benlamlih not only contributed percussion but also some fine singing. He was born in Casablanca in 1980 to a family of musicians and singers within the Sufi tradition, originally from Fez.

It was a night of joy and celebration as outside, the rain tumbled down. Despite problems finding the venue, it was certainly worth the trip.


SEE ALSO OUR REVIEW OF YESTERDAY'S AFTERNOON THEATRE PERFORMANCE HERE

Tomorrow at the Festival
10 - 12 at the Salle de la Prefecture: Round table wrap up
20.30 at Commune de Fez: Festival closing ceremony and Derviches
Festival Weather:
Mostly cloudy, top of 21 Celsius and rain.

Buy a ticket online " Ticket Sales"

The View From Fez is an official Festival Media Partner

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