Morocco in May - A Cultural Feast!

From Fes to the Valley of Roses, from Essaouira to Rabat and Tan Tan, Morocco will turn into one big stage for the month of May with concerts, meetings and performances up and down the country 

Fes Festival

Top of the list is the  Fes Festival of World Sacred Music (Festival Musiques Sacrées du Monde) in Fes from May 6-15, a musical and cultural event that animates the imperial city by creating a synergy between art and spirituality each year. Women are the protagonists of this 22nd edition with the theme "the women founders" celebrating the role and influence of women of the Orient in music and poetry.

Kelaat M'gouna, approximately 100 km from Ouarzazate, hosts the Moussem des Roses, or rose festival, from May 8-10 in honour of the Damask rose growing in the valley. The colourful and perfumed festival includes concerts, dancing and events including the election of Miss Rose.

Kelaat M'gouna Rose Festival - 8th to 10th of May

From May 12-15 it is the turn of the Festival Gnaoua et Musiques du Monde in Essaouira, one of the world's most important music festivals attracting roughly 500,000 people each year. Numerous artists will entertain the eclectic public again this year with a variety of music ranging from Gnaoua to jazz, hiphop, offunky, afrobeat and world music.

Gnaoua Festival in Essaouira

The capital Rabat is to host the 15th edition of the Mawazine Festival bringing together pop, jazz and soul legends from all over the world from 20-28 May. This year the festival will open with an inaugural concert by pop king Chris Brown and close with a performance by Christina Aguilera.

The Amazigh Tan Tan Festival

Last but not least, the Amazigh (Berber) Tan Tan festival from May 23-27 brings together around 30 nomadic tribes from southern Morocco and other parts of northwest Africa in testimony to the cultural patrimony of the region's various ethnic groups. The guest of honour of the 11th edition of the festival is Tunisia.

NOTE! The Fes Festival has been extended. See details here: Fes Festival

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Explorers Club to be Honoured at Tan Tan Festival

The Explorers Club, will be honoured for its efforts by the Moroccan government and King Mohammad VI at the historic Moussem de Tan Tan Festival in the Sahara on September 6th through 8th

The club, with its headquarters in New York City, has been singled out for its leadership role in promoting inclusive efforts for explorers and scientists from all countries to pursue a unified goal of worldwide exploration, 

Accepting the honor will be President of the Worldwide Explorers Club Alan Nichols and 14 member delegation of the Club's noted members, both explorers and scientists.

Tan Tan, famous for its inclusive tradition, brings together more than 35 tribes from the Sahara, the Berbers, along with a few representatives from other African and Middle Eastern countries. They spend a fortnight pursuing cultural exchanges, folk art and music festivals, camel races and other unique activities. Termed a "spectacle" by visitors, Tan Tan becomes a virtual city created on the Sahara with more than 1,000 Bedouin tents and more than 1,000 camels.

Started in 1963, Tan Tan Moussem's main event is camel trading, but there are also wedding celebrations, inter-tribal competitions and lots of music and dancing. The most dramatic aspect of the festival is a fantasia, a reenactment of a traditional Berber attack charge on horseback.

The festival was suspended from 1979 until 2004 due to tension in the Western Sahara, but since its revival by the Moroccan Ministry of Tourism and UNESCO, it has drawn nomadic peoples from Morocco, Mali, Niger and as far away as Saudi Arabia. Festival participants stay in a temporary city of more than 800 tents handmade from goat and camel hair.


About The Explorers Club

The Explorers Club was founded in New York City 1904 by a group of the world's leading explorers of the time. It is a multidisciplinary, not for profit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to scientific exploration of land, sea, air, and space by supporting research and education in the physical, natural and biological sciences.

Inside the club in New York

The Club's members have been responsible for an illustrious series of famous firsts: First to the North Pole, first to the South Pole, first to the summit of Mount Everest, first to the deepest point in the ocean, first to the surface of the moon. With 3,000 members worldwide, the organization is headquartered at 46 East 70th Street, New York.

For more information visit: www.explorers.org


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Moroccan Photography Competition #21

Toubkal (normal South Cwm route) with Timesguida and Ras Ouanoukrim in the back right - Photographer - Des Clarke

If you would like to submit a   photograph  taken in Morocco, please email it in jpeg or gif format to fes.riad@gmail.com and put "photo entry" in the subject line.

A  regularly updated collection of all the  photographs is now available   on The  View from Fez Photo  Journal

Tan-Tan festival - November 28-30.

Moroccan and foreign tourists will pour into the southern city of Tan-Tan to celebrate the desert and nomadic life, as part of the fifth Tan-Tan festival that runs from November 28th to 30th.

Nomadic tribes from all over the Moroccan Sahara, Mauritania, Mali and as far as Niger will meet in the southern city and set up tents to pay tribute to a lifestyle that a diminishing number of men and women struggle to keep alive within a globalized world.

The tents will hold thematic displays on Berber and Hassani lifestyles: cooking, marriage ceremonies, weaving, popular games, the teaching of the Koran, and the nomadic lifestyle.

Through the nights of the three-day festival, the dunes will vibrate to the sounds of concerts given by local and foreign folklore groups in wonderful spots. A special night will be held at the embouchure of Chbika river, one of the few breaks in the undulating cliffs where the flat, rocky hammada landscape of the desert meets the sure, strong currents of the Atlantic Ocean.



However, the major entertainment will incontestably be the Camel, the “desert ship”. Tourists and participants alike will queue to follow camel races, the popular sports of the desert, and camel parades that feature the best camels in the region.

The festival will feature other sports and cultural activities, such as the 2nd international road race, Hassani poetry and a movie screening.


Tags: Moroccan Morocco Fes, Maghreb news