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From May 14 to 16, the French Institutes of Morocco are presenting La Cigogne Volubile  (Stork Voluble) a book for youth in Morocco - an event dedicated to young readers aged 4 to 12.

It is organised by the French Institute of Morocco at its twelve locations: Agadir, Casablanca, El Jadida, Essaouira, Fez, Kenitra, Marrakech, Meknes, Oujda, Rabat, Tangier, Tetouan, as well as in partnership with Safi OCP and the Franco-Moroccan Alliance.


A national theme unites the event on the 12 sites. In 2015, France being the host country for the nineteenth climate conference, it is the environment / ecology, which were selected as themes of the 5th edition of the La Cigogne Volubile 2015. This event aims to: educate young audiences on environmental protection issues, nature and eco-citizenship and more widely the relationship between man and nature. It is an opportunity to meet authors, illustrators , storytellers, filmmakers who have written, drawn on the environment and to organise recycling art workshops.

ARABLE - AT Dar Batha - Saturday, May 16, 19h, - Free admission

Written and Directed by: Karima El Kharraze, this monologue in two voices tells the initiatory journey of a young woman between France and Morocco. The characters played by Mouna Belghali and Estelle Lesage are trying to forge a hybrid identity. The singular theatricality of this text lies in the alternation of lyrical impulse and dramatic elements, which creates a friction between temporalities, languages ​​and different places.


On tour in the French Institutes of Agadir, Casablanca, Fez and Marrakech. From May 12 to 21
Set Design: Garance Coquart and Jonathan Debrouwer
Lighting design: Lais Foulc
Sound creation: Vincent Lendower
Costumes: Pauline Zurini
General Authority and lighting: Marine Berthomé / Manon Lauriol
Sound and tray: Lou Beauvallet-Proust
Duration: 1:10

Contact:
French Institute: 33, Rue Loukili, BP 2277, Fes. Tel: 0 5 35 62 39 21/62 35 40 / Fax: 0 5 35 62 52 03
Language School: 12, Rue Serghini, BP 2277, Fes. Tel: 0 5 35 62 41 49 / Fax: 0 5 35 62 56 65
Riad Dar Batha: 15, Salaj, Fes Medina. Tel: 0 5 35 63 67 13

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Festival HQ at Dar Tazi

Friday the 22nd of May sees the opening of the Fes Festival of World Sacred Music. The opening concert kicks off at Bab Makina at 9pm

The opening night spectacular - Fes: in search of Africa - is a musical tale evoking the spirit of African heritage. It takes its inspiration from the history and descriptions of Africa written by Hassan Al Wazzan (c 1490-1550, known as Leo Africanus or Yuhanna Al Assad in Arabic), as well as highlighting the history of the Tijani Sufi brotherhood. Fes and its medina is the link between Andalusia and Africa.

See the full festival programme HERE

The festival runs through until May 30. During that time the weather is expected to be reasonably warm - between 28 and 31 degrees. Fortunately the humidity should be low, making the weather very pleasant. The first weekend will be fine, though Sunday and Monday could see some thunderstorms in the afternoons.

The festival organisers say that everything is on schedule and with overseas visitors already arriving, they are looking forward to the 21st Fes Festival being a great success. The View from Fez is a festival Media Partner and will be reporting on all festival events and keeping visitors up to date with any changes to the schedule via news stories and on Twitter: @theviewfromfez


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Last night saw the second Slideluck production in Fez. Once again it was a night of food, friendship, music and some great photography, thanks to Omar Chennafi and his team. The View from Fez was there...

Congratulations to Omar Chennafi for a another great event

The ALIF Riad was packed

The music ranging from Gnaoua to Flamenco was a great hit

A night of good food, joy and great images

Some superb photographs

Beautifully textured photographs from Jess Stephens

Suzanna Clarke's jubilant photography from Cuba

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Rosa Gerhards & Matthias Härter are the Beatfoxes and they will be performing in Fez on Thursday, May 21 at 7 PM at the ALIF Riad, 6 Derb Drissi, Batha.

Joining them will be guest artists Alex Neilson & Victor Herrero

Rosa Gerhards grew up in Black Country, England, and began her training as a singer with the North American a cappella singers Northern Harmony, with a focus on the Shape Note singing style of the first settlers in America. She continued in England, exploring traditional folk music around the country with artists such as Chris Wood, Bellowhead and Emily Miller.

Matthias Härter started beatboxing (vocal percussion) at the age of 14 as an expression of his never-ending urge to create noise, which over time became a rare and technically innovative way to make music. His style of beatboxing embodies musicality over the traditionally more competitive beatboxing of the hip-hop scene.

They met in Amsterdam, and began combining Rosa's traditional folk/gospel-inspired songwriting with Matthias' punchy and unconventional beats, supported by Rosa's fluid melodies on the bass guitar. This unfamiliar mix of genres enabled them to play in any environment from festivals to candle-lit bars.

They are now making a name for themselves in Berlin, Germany, and have recently finished recording their debut album, which will be released this Spring. Their style is a collaboration of new and old, soft and danceable, and is permeable enough to invite guest musicians, whether on classical guitar or synthesisers, from anywhere the world is taking them.



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The opening night of the 21st Fes Festival of World Sacred Music was held at Bab Makina - a venue transformed by sound and light into something entirely different. The opening night spectacular - Fes: in search of Africa - exceeded everyone's expectations

Man's spirit is so much greater than his body ~  African proverb

Opening nights at the Fes Festival have a reputation as being a bit of a mixed bag. Tonight Alain Weber and his team produced an event that stunned the audience. It was, in a word, different. 

The first difference was noticeable even before the performance began. When the crowd rose to greet Princess Lalla Salma the security officers, instead of attempting to shield her from the cameras as in the past, stepped back and even indicated that it was fine to take photographs. 

Princess Lalla Salma at the Festival opening

Then came a difference that was long overdue and very welcome. The introductory remarks were delivered in Arabic and then in English. As one experienced journalist told The View from Fez "Having announcements in English before French is sending a signal in the language debate in Morocco".  Also very welcome was a request that there be no flash photography.

The performance itself was a cleverly structured tribute to the great mystical travellers such As Hassan Al Wazzan (c 1490-1550) Leo Africanus, known as Yuhanna Al Assad in Arabic, who forged historic links between Morocco and the rest of Africa. It concluded with an homage to the Tijani Sufi Brotherhood, whose founder, Sidi Ahmed Tijani, (1737-1815) is buried in Fes.

Just some of the beautiful projections on the walls of the Bab Makina venue

Using extraordinarily precise projections onto the walls of Bab Makina, Artistic Director Alain Weber's production took the audience on journey in music and dance from the banks of the Nile to the Niger River, from the vast sub-Saharan deserts of Mauritania to the Atlas Mountains, from the ancient empires of Mali and Songhai and from Timbuktu to Cairo. It was the perfect showcase for traditional artists from Morocco, Mali, Egypt, Burkina Faso, Mauritania and Senegal.

Fes and its Medina are the link between Andalusia and Africa and as a starting point of the evening the Bab Makina gate appeared as the door to a madrasa in Timbuktu, a Hausa fortress, a Tijani Zawiya, the Karaouine mosque and a Bedouin camp. Arabic and Bambara calligraphy was also projected onto the walls.

The wise African narrator

Oud master, Driss al Maloumi

Leo Africanus

The performance began with a gentle oud piece played in front of a projection of moon & stars by Driss al Maloumi. He told the story of an Amazigh fable about the moon (aoune in Tamazight).Then the gates of Bab Boujloud opened and Hassan el Wazzan appeared to narrate his journeys.

The transitions were at times a little slow, but given the logistics of mounting such a spectacle, that was to be expected.

Next came an Andalous group fronted by Nouhaila El Kalaa, who regular festival patrons will remember was a 13 year old sensation when she first appeared at Dar Adiyel during the 2014 festival.

14 year old Nouhaila El Kalaa

Amazigh star Chérifa

Amazigh star Chérifa and Griot Coumbane Mint Amartichtt from Mauritania were also welcome return guests.

At this point the tempo rose and against a backdrop of an African baobab tree and with an African narrator the audience was treated to a Bwaba ritual - Masks of the Moon - from Burkina Faso.

Masks of the Moon

And so it went, change after change. At one point there were ten koras on stage, including Ballaké Sissoko & the Kora Ensemble of Bamako. Then it was off to Senegal and the colourful Doudou Ndiaye Rose Children & the Simb Lion Dance. This was followed by a crowd pleasing Tamango sand-shuffling tap dancer (USA, French Guyana) before the return to Fes and a projection representing the site of the tomb of Sidi Ahmed Tijani. The Tijani brotherhood sang to round off a splendid evening.

Doudou Ndiaye

Kora Ensemble of Bamako

The lighting design by Christophe Olivier assisted by Gaël Boucault, with projection mapping by Caroline Bourgine and Lucianna Penna was flawless. The Bab Makina venue is acoustically difficulties but once again the sound engineers, Chris Ekers and Erik Loots, showed why they are regarded as some of the best in the world.

Lion dance from Senegal

A perfect beginning for the Fes Festival

Hassan Al Wazzan's life of travel through Africa as ambassador for the king of Fes was recorded in his The History & Description of Africa and this opening night performance some five centuries later was a perfect beginning to the Festival.


Text and research: Sandy McCutcheon and Lynn Sheppard
Photographs: Sandy McCutcheon


Tomorrow at the Festival

Weather: A chance of thunderstorm and rain. Cloudy with a top of 29 Celsius and a low of 15.

9 am Batha Museum  Festival Forum - Spiritual paths and trade routes - How is Africa presented in schools and textbooks?

4.30pm Batha Museum - Payiz Ensembe from Iraq - Kurdish traditional music and poetry.

9pm Bab Makina . - Introductory encounter between the Cap Caval bagpipe band from Brittany and the Lamkartass Ensemble from Tissa. This will be followed by Saber Rebaï from Tunisia - one of the "great romantic" singers.

8.30pm Free Festival in the City (Boujloud Sqaure) - Voices United Choir (CUV) of Al Akhawayn University Followed at 10.30 by Said Mouskir

11pm - Sufi Night at Dar Tazi - Marifat Sufi Band from Pakistan (entry free).

The View from Fez Festival is a Media Partner and will be reporting on all festival events and keeping visitors up to date with any change to the schedule via news stories and on Twitter : @theviewfromfez


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With a weather alert in place for much of Morocco and warnings about heavy rain and possible hail, concerns are beng expressed by Fes Festival patrons about tonight's concerts

However, the Festival Office has informed The View from Fez that cancellations were not expected at this stage. "Our artists have come a long way to perform and travel home the day following their performances. So cancellation is not an option."

@theviewfromfez will tweet any change to this information.

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Day two of the Fes Festival of World Sacred Music arrived with a rather ominous weather forecast: rain and more rain. Fortunately it held off in the morning with temperatures around 18 Celsius

By mid-afternoon the heavy rains arrived and at the Batha Museum the audience managed to crowd under the arches or contended with soggy seats and umbrellas. The Fes Festival Office was quick to inform people that there would be no cancellations and that concerts would go head during times when the rain stopped - it promised to be an interesting night.

Fes Festival Forum:  Spiritual paths and trade routes


This year's Forum at the Fes Sacred Music Festival focuses on the close ties between Fes - erstwhile capital of the vast Moorish empire - and the rest of Africa to the south. Intellectual, cultural, spiritual and commercial exchange was part of everyday life and Andalusian Fes was undeniably African.

Festival Director General Tajeddine Baddou at the first forum

The first episode of the 2015 Forum was entitled "spiritual paths and trade routes," and was intended to examine how trade has often run in parallel with spiritual interchange across Africa and issues of how Africa is presented in schools. However, while the contributions from the podium (20 minutes each from 5 academics and experts) were in and of themselves interesting, they tended to focus on specialist topics and discrete examples of intellectual exchange rather than the bigger picture of how the great camel trains brought with them ideas as well as goods.

Senegalese philosopher, Soulaymane Bachir Diagne

It was down to the only sub-Saharan African on the panel, the Senegalese philosopher, Soulaymane Bachir Diagne, to mention the taboo topic of the trade in slaves across the desert.

Happily, the only non-academic on the panel, Bariza Khiari, a French politician, Socialist senator and previously Vice President of the Senate, offered a broader perspective to the discussion and brought it right up to date, mentioning the impact of petrodollars and religious influence from the Arabian peninsula in North and West Africa today.

Bariza Khiari

An intervention from the floor, by 9 year old Kyane from Casablanca, brought the discussion back on topic. In her short speech in French and English, she explained that, as a Moroccan, she was African. The African continent was fantastic - and anyone who didn't appreciate it just needed a little patience! In one short comment, she brought us all back to Fes, Morocco: epicentre of Africa.


Afternoon concert at the Batha Museum

The Payiz Ensemble - Iraq


Given all the Iraqi Kurds have weathered in recent and past history, it was unsurprising that a little rain did not dampen the spirits of the Payiz Ensemble or lessen their enthusiasm for sharing the musical traditions of their homeland with the decidedly soggy audience at the Batha Museum this afternoon.

There were questions about whether the concert would be rained out or moved across the road to the prefecture complex, but a policy of “no cancellations” by the festival management proved a wise decision. Those dedicated attendees who braved the weather either clustered on seats packed under the arches or contended with soggy seats and umbrellas blocking their view. A few well-prepared people sat on plastic bags and the most resourceful ladies brought a windscreen protector from their car to prevent wet bottoms!

The beginning of the concert was suitably somber, the mournful balaban oboe echoing the grey, overcast sheltering sky above. The shaking sound of a percussive instrument was reminiscent of raindrops on rooftops, and the musicians had one eye on the weather and one on the audience as they determined how to lighten the mood.

Gradually the beat of the instruments from the eight-strong, all male ensemble increased and built up to a more joyous feel. The stringed instruments such as the tar (lute), the oud, the santoor (dulcimer) and the kemantche (fiddle) kept pace with the dafs (frame drums). Their deep voices, using the guttural techniques of the poets and bards of old (known as ashiqs) perfectly complemented the tenor tones of the central singer, reflecting light and darkness.

The skin on the lute trembles like living flesh - Jalal Al Din Rumi.

Eventually the enthusiasm of the musicians warmed the chilly crowd, leading them in rhythmic clapping and lifting their spirits with cries of “hup, hup, hup, hup!” The rain was also chased away by the highly spirited music and rays of sunshine emerged along with the broadening smiles on the musicians faces as the audience became engaged, a skilled drum solo eliciting whoops and cheers. The climax of the concert was an energetic line dance with the musicians kicking up their heels, the sleeves of their traditional costumes unfurled for added flourish and the indomitable Kurdish spirit on full display.

The audience reaction was enthusiastic. First time Festival goer Tara McBride, from Oregon in the US, said, “The Fes Festival has been on my bucket list for 10 years and since retiring from teaching I’ve finally been able to make it here. I think the concert was fantastic, clapping along and keeping the beat was such fun. Continuing on from the spectacle of last night, I think this festival is going to be the highlight of my life.”

Bab Makina

The evening concert at Bab Makina was something of an anticlimax after the wonderful opening night. While the rain had not dampened spirits, it certainly soaked the seats and plastic bags were at a premium in order to save oneself from sitting in an uncomfortable puddle.

Bagad Cap Caval Breton band a no-show at Bab Makina

The advertised Bagad Cap Caval Breton band with the Lamkartass Ensemble from Tissa sadly did not appear.  Which was a disappointment as many in the audience had caught a glimpse of them in the Medina streets and were keen to see and hear more.

However, for a majority of the capacity audience there was only one name on their lips - Saber Rebaï. His pulling power is immense and it seemed that every young woman from Fes, Rabat and Casablanca was in the audience and dressed to kill.

Saber Rebaï did not disappoint his fans

The rain stayed away, but due to problems with the set up, the concert did not start until twenty to eleven, by which time, the audience was getting restive.

Saber Rebaï is a Tunisian pan-Arab singer and composer best known for his song Sidi Mansour. Born in 1967, he started singing at 17 and went on to have a career that has seen him undertake tours across Europe, USA, Australia as well as Palestine and South Korea.


Backed by a large orchestra and with four backing singers it took Saber only a few seconds to have the crowd baying for more. Gone were the memories of the long wait, the chill evening and the wet seats. All that mattered was that Saber Rebaï was on stage and chatting to them. Arab pop music may not be everyone's cup of mint tea, but for a majority of the audience the night's performance will remain a festival highlight.

Sufi Night at Dar Tazi 

By a strange and somewhat annoying coincidence, the Dar Tazi venue was also very late in starting. The concert, scheduled for 11pm did not start until midnight. Given that they had most of the day to prepare it was difficult to accept that it was another "rain delay".

A smaller than normal crowd

The beautiful and intimate venue is normally packed to capacity, but this first Sufi Night saw only a moderate crowd of mostly young Moroccans.

The Marifat Sufi band is making a return visit to Fez after a superb concert on June 18th last year. The qawwali style performance is typically long, starting gently and building over the steady drone of the two harmoniums. The effect was intoxicating and hypnotic. The percussion - tabla and dholak join in and the tempo increases. Then, reaching a climax the music stops rather abruptly. Then the journey begins again, this time with more improvisation. Again the trance like state is produced and the distinction between performer and audience is lost.

Dr. Muhammad Zafar Iqbal

The Marifat Sufi band was created in 2007 by Dr. Muhammad Zafar Iqbal (ex-director of the musicology department of Lahore, Pakistan). He named the band “Marifat” after the state of mental illumination achieved after one follows the core values of Sufism. The members of the band are all well known musicians who performed for a long time as soloists prior joining Dr. Muhammad Zafar Iqbal’s band. Inter religious harmony is one of the foundations of the group the members of which are Christian and Muslim. The band owes its originality and unique identity to the mix obtained by its musicians between traditional and classical music and Sufi poetry.


Text: Lynn Sheppard, Vanessa Bonnin, Sandy McCutcheon
Photographs: Lynn Sheppard, Vanessa Bonnin, Sandy McCutcheon
Additional material translated by Helen Ranger

Tomorrow

Weather: Partly cloudy and cool. Top 22 and low temperature of 13 Celsius.

9 am Festival Forum Batha Museum: Africa and the Sacred

4.30 Batha Museum - Scottish Celtic singer Julie Fowlis.

6 pm Jnan Sbil Garden - Brittany Bagad Cap Caval Band and the Ensemble Lamkartasse from Tissa.

8.30 pm and 10.30pm Free Festival in the City (Boujloud) - followed By Adli Mohammed Safae and Hanae.

9 pm Bab Makina - African Spirit - Oumou Sangare (Mali) followed by Tiken Jah Fakoly (Ivory Coast)

11 pm - Night Sufi Dar Tazi - Tariqa Cherquaouia: Bejaad (Free concert).

The View from Fez  is a Festival Media Partner and will be reporting on all festival events and keeping visitors up to date with any change to the schedule via news stories and on Twitter : @theviewfromfez

See our previous Fes Festival 2015 reports
Fes Festival Opening Night Review


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Due to an extreme weather event and venue flooding, the Fes festival of World Sacred music has cancelled the African Spirit concert and the Sufi Night. A spokesperson for the Festival told The View from Fez that they were not certain if the concert could be rescheduled. Further updates via twitter  @theviewfromfez

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After the previous day's rain, Sunday dawned clear and bright. Despite the promise of rain, the Festival spirit was undamped, with Festival patrons out in force enjoying the Medina, concerts and a cool but sunny Sunday - until around 5pm when the rain came down by the bucket load!

Fes Forum 

The second day of the Forum - on the topic of Africa and the Sacred - had a promising start. Moderator Frédéric Ferney, poetically reminded us, as the cradle of humanity, Africa draws its spiritual inspiration from "its soil and its sky."


The first speaker was Bernard Coyault, director of theology at the remarkable ecumenical college Al Mowafaqa in Rabat, which trains Catholic and Protestant priests. His anecdotes - underpinned by his anthropology background - were interesting and relevant, as he described the religious locations and practices of a small Congolese village; the village of both his wife and a Congolese migrant whom he had met in Morocco. He spoke of the impact of the invisible, spiritual world on the visible world of humans and the need of the villagers to seek solace, solutions and cure in scared rituals and religious practices.

Bernard Coyault

The following speakers, although certainly interesting, represented the views of academics looking in on the subjects under treatment. A great opportunity was missed in not having practitioners of sacred rituals present themselves. One such example would be the Masks of the Moon ritual being performed in Fes for the first time outside its native Burkina Faso. An explanation would have been both relevant and fascinating, as would the presence of the current head of the much-mentioned Tijaniyya Sufi order, Brahim Tijani.

Some audience discussion of the omission of native Moroccan rituals was provoked by author Alexis Jenni's reading of a passage from his own book about the experience of attending a Gnaoui lila.

Henri Lopès - "not everyone stuck to the topic"

Henri Lopès, former Congolese Prime Minister and currently Ambassador of the Republic of Congo-Brazzaville to various European countries, was in the audience and was "touched by the empathy of Bernard Coyault" towards his native culture. Following the discussion, he told The View From Fez he had "learned a lot" this morning, and "although not all the panellists had stuck to the topic," this had not diminished the quality of the discussion.

Many Festival patrons appear to feel that the old French-style "talking-head" format of inviting academics to talk on their pet topics rather than asking actual practitioners to demonstrate and elucidate their art or practice is a rusted on template for the forum. So much the pity, given the wealth of knowledge and material available in Fes - not only during the Festival, but year round.


Batha Museum - Julie Fowlis


On their first trip to the African continent Julie Fowlis and her band experienced some decidedly Scottish weather. Under the famous Barbary oak, she wowed the crowd at the Musée Batha with a repertoire of ballads, traditional dances and more modern interpretations entirely in Scots Gaelic.

Set against the backdrop of the Batha Palace gardens, like a Scottish forest glade, not even the rain could put off the large audience who had come to experience Celtic music from the northern fringes of Europe at this 21st Fes Sacred Music Festival dedicated to Africa.


It was after a very special arrangement of The Beatles'Blackbird and, just as the band began a song about "bad weather", that the heavens opened. Unperturbed, they continued their set. The audience put up umbrellas and retreated under the museum's colonnades and clapped all the more enthusiastically in enjoyment and sympathy as festival staff came on stage to hold umbrellas above the performers. As more and more deserted their seats for shelter, Julie bravely attempted to teach the Moroccan and international audience the chorus of a song from her maternal MacDonald clan.


The festival-goers in Fes may be less accustomed to the rain than Julie, who heralds from the Scottish Hebrides islands, but they were powerless to resist her haunting voice. This was no more the case than when she sang a traditional Gaelic lullaby a capella, dedicated to the two daughters she has with her Irish husband and band member, Éamon Doorley. Her voice cut through the rain and the thunder to enrapture us all before safety concerns forced the concert to an early close.

The Batha Museum venue - a little Scottish weather Photo: Jedidiah Carosaari

After the concert Julie Fowlis talked with Lynn Sheppard for The View From Fez.

We asked Julie about her first impressions of Fez, on this, her first trip to Africa. She told us that - despite some obvious differences - she was surprised to observe a "number of similarities between life in the Fez medina and traditional rural Scottish societies." She had seen crafts and practices that were current in Scotland at least until the 1950s. On a visit to the famous Fez tanneries, she was reminded of the weavers and dyers of Harris Tweed, how they used natural dyes and natural products to fix the dyes and how they sang as they worked.

Julie said, "It's an honour to be in Fez". For her, the chance to perform at festivals such as Fez were a chance for Scots Gaelic speakers to be seen as part of "another valid world culture", whose traditions were as long and valid as any other, and not to feel like an insignificant minority. Today, Scots Gaelic is spoken by only 1% of the Scottish population (around 58,000 people) and Julie noted, "there are no longer any monoglot Gaelic speakers, as English is so important for everyday life."

Scots Gaelic had been getting some support from the Scottish Nationalist government in Scotland, but they were starting from a very low base. Music was important in the promotion of Gaelic, as it "attracts many young people to the language," in Julie's words. The opportunities which young musicians have to travel inspire them, she said, and offer validation and value to their own culture as they interact with other cultures. She felt that it was important to continue the language and the traditions: "People will look back on this time as when Gaelic was either saved, or it died."

In this respect, Julie and her Irish husband, band member Éamon Doorley, are raising their two daughters trilingually. She speaks to them in Scots Gaelic, he in Irish and they are surrounded by English at school and in broader society. Sometimes, though, she felt it would be more socially acceptable if she were teaching them a foreign language, rather than her own. Some people in Scotland no longer saw the purpose of Gaelic. When she took the decision to bring up her kids as Gaelic speakers, a friend told her: "When you decide to speak Gaelic to your child, be prepared to battle for that cause all your life."

Today, through her song and her music, Julie Fowlis brought her personal battle for her native Scots Gaelic to a new audience in Fes.

Bab Makina - African Spirit Concert Cancelled or Postponed?

UPDATED: Sadly, the African Spirit concert was cancelled and it seems unlikely that it can be rescheduled, although late on Sunday the Festival organisers told us that it was "postponed" and they would inform us if and when it is rescheduled. 

 “We will inform you tonight of the new date. The Fes Festival would like to welcome you under better weather conditions.” - Fes Festival

Unfortunately by midnight we had still had no further update. 

Tiken Jah Fakoly - postponed?

The View From Fez caught up with the performers, Oumou Sangaré and Tiken Jah Fakoly before news came of the cancellation.

Tiken Jah Fakoly's latest album, Dernier Appel (Last Call), is a call to young Africans to stand up and take charge of their own destiny. He says, "Africa is the continent of the future; its 54 countries have the riches and resources to achieve the necessary change". He calls on African youth to remain in Africa and continue the fight begun by their ancestors, who achieved liberation from slavery and from the colonial powers. He sees a need to install democracy in every African country, beginning with the important fight for literacy.

To this end, Tiken Jah Fakoly has built 5 schools: one in each of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger and two in his native Ivory Coast. One is planned in Guinea and he hopes one day to have built a school in every African country. He emphasises the importance of education, but also of agriculture. With his own rice farm in Ivory Coast, he hopes to fuel the fight for democracy!

Musically, Fakoly has recently been in Jamaica recording some of the reggae back catalogue of Jamaican stars such as Bob Marley and Ken Booth and working with reggae greats such as Sly and Robbie. This material will appear on his new album, due out in October 2015, entitled "Racines" (Roots). He regrets that, "modern Jamaican artists of Dancehall and Ragga are not more aware of the African roots of their music."

Token Jah Fakoly wanted to bring the important message of reggae to the African Spirit event in the 21st Fes Sacred Music Festival and was looking forward to sharing the stage with Oumou Sangaré, Malian songstress who is also recognised for her work in the social sphere.

"We need to know our origins, where we are from. As artists, we are trying to get close to these roots through our music. Africa is rich. Africans aren't poor. We are rich in everything which is necessary." - Oumou Sangaré 

Oumou Sangaré is a tireless artist and campaigner for women's rights.  As well as an accomplished vocal artist, who has sung with greats such as Ali Farka Touré, Oumou is also involved in international politics and development. She was a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation, but says she does not want to be a politician: "Oumou Sangaré is apolitical. I prefer to stay at the side of those who have no voice. In politics, it's not possible to say the bad things. I could never be a politician!"

She is also a businesswomen. She says she wants to show women that through work, they can change their situations. Sangaré has launched a car, the "Oum Sang," built the Hotel Wassoulou in Bamako and has created a 10 hectare farm where she can teach women agricultural techniques. "I bring women to my farm to work on the farm to show them what is possible."

When asked about her inspiration, Sangaré says, "My inspiration comes from African women. The situation of African women inspires me. The current state of women in African inspires me. As a child, I experienced suffering. That has also inspired me in my life."

Sangaré is a force to be reckoned with. Hopefully the Fes Festival can find a way to reschedule.

Sufi Night at Dar Tazi  - Tariqa Charqawiyya - Cancelled

Again there is no news of a reschedule, which is a pity as the Charqawiyya Tariqa is historically regarded as one of the most famous zaouïas in Morocco.  The Charqawiyya has always contributed to the dissemination of the precepts and culture of moderate Islam, not to mention its political role especially during difficult periods of history of the country in the 19th century.

Samaà with the Tariqa Charqawiyya - Undulating a capella harmonies

The Charqawiyya are a North African order out of which many of the present day Moroccan Sufi brotherhoods have sprung. The Charqawiyya are in actuality an offshoot of a prior order annexed from the Shadhiliyya, namely the Jazuliyya, and take their name from Muhammad al-Sharqi (d.1601), a descendent of the 2nd caliph, ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab. Sometimes the Charqawiyya are known by the full name: Charqawiyya Jazuliyya-Shadhiliyya.

Based historically in Boujad, a Moroccan town bordering the Atlas mountains, they are known for their political activism, beginning in the 17th Century with their support for Sultan Moulay al-Rashid (d.1672), the founder of the Alaouite dynasty of Moroccan kings, which still rules to this day.


Text: Lynn Sheppard, Sandy McCutcheon
Photographs: Suzanna Clarke, Vanessa Bonnin, Sandy McCutcheon, Lynn Sheppard

Storms slowly clearing from the Fez Medina

Tomorrow at the Festival

Weather:   Cloudy and cool with a chance of rain. Top 22 and low temperature of 11 Celsius.

9 am Festival Forum Batha Museum:  Linguistic pluralism in Africa 

4.30 pm Batha Museum - Ballaké Sissoko (kora) and Debashish Battacharya (Indian slide guitar)

8.30 pm and 10.30pm Free Festival in the City (Boujloud) - Ensemble Bana de la Dakka Marrakchia followed by Moroccan superstar Hamid Kasri.

Nights in the Medina 1

8 pm Dar Adiyel - Eduardo Ramos (Portugal)
8 pm and 10.30 pm  Sidi Mohamed Ben Youssef Cultural Complex - Masks of the Moon (Burkina Faso)
9 pm Batha Museum - Marassa Premiere with Omar Sosa & Urban Tap (USA, Cuba, France)

Sufi Nights

11 pm - Night Sufi Dar Tazi - Tariqa Aissaouiya (Isawa) with Haj Said Guissi (Free concert).

The View from Fez  is a Festival Media Partner and will be reporting on all festival events and keeping visitors up to date with any change to the schedule via news stories and on Twitter : @theviewfromfez

See our previous Fes Festival 2015 reports
Fes Festival Opening Night Review
Fes Festival Day Two Review



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It has just been announced that attempts to present the previously postponed "Africa Spirit" concert have failed and that in recompense tickets to "Africa Spirit" can be swapped for tickets to two concerts: "The Temptations" and "The Andalusian Evening."

Ticket holders wishing to be reimbursed must go to the Spirit of Fes Foundation office at Dar Tazi with their ticket and their ID. The festival apologised for the inconvenience and thanked festival goers for their understanding

It is unfortunate that it could not have been staged tonight at Bab Makina as that venue is free this evening.

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The Fes Festival has changed the time of the performances of the Masks of the Moon. They will take place at 9pm and 11pm. The performances take place at the Sidi Mohamed Ben Yussef Cultural Complex.

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The fourth day of the Fes Festival of World Sacred Music began as a mopping up exercise following the torrential downpour on Sunday. With the weather improving and the sun shining, the Festival presented a day of music from Mali, India, Portugal, Burkina Faso, USA, Cuba and France and Moroccan Sufi music. It was a good day to be in Fez

Forum: Linguistic pluralism in Africa

Today's theme was "under-explored"

At this morning's Forum, on decidedly soggy seats, but thankfully under an increasingly fierce sun, the discussion was intended to explore linguistic pluralism, something shared by all African countries. According to one of the speakers, Henri Lopès, former Congolese Prime Minister and currently a Congolese diplomat, half of all world languages (around 3,000) are present in Africa. Of these, a staggering 90% of them are neither written nor transcribed. "This means that Africa's one billion inhabitants - in contrast to China's 1.3 billion - have no common written or read language." he said.

Such a potentially interesting theme was sadly under-explored by today's speakers. With the notable exception of two speakers, the podium speeches focused on theory, academic research and literature. Mr. Lopès recounted his own experience of trying to establish a lingua franca in the newly independent Republic of the Congo as Director General of Education, where over 40 languages are spoken, but essentially only the colonial language, French, is written.

Omar Berrada

Omar Berrada, Moroccan, former engineer and now engaged in various functions in the arts, gave a short but pertinent overview of Morocco's difficult relationship with its African heritage and its multi-ethnic present, through the medium of Gnaoua music and examples of the multilingual elements of Gnaoua song texts, the origins of which are often long lost.

The discussion would have been more meaningful were there a linguist on the panel, or even one woman! Quite apart from only brushing the surface of African linguistic diversity, the debate - as led by the panel - could have touched on some current and relevant issues in Morocco, such as the discussion of English vs. French in education and government and the campaign for greater recognition of Amazigh languages, as reflected in the revised constitution. Both were touched upon, but only fleetingly. Audience members questioned the lack of focus on the topic and why was there no Gnaoui on the panel, or a representative of the Moroccan Education Minister, Mr. Lahcen Daoudi, a strong advocate for greater tuition in English?

This year, the Forum has deliberately invited students from Moroccan universities to participate. We spoke to some of them, who were reluctant to give their names. They felt that the panel's set pieces, exclusively in French and at a linguistic level above the average francophone's ability, were insufficiently interactive. They would have welcomed contributions in English or at a simpler level of comprehension. They also criticised the fact that there were no panellists from sub-Saharan Africa who were based in their native countries (rather than in Europe) - the presence of such speakers would have lent a completely different perspective.

Tuesday's Forum will cover "Hassan Al Wazzan (Leo Africanus): Portraying Africa". We will see tomorrow how the panellists explore this historical figure and the relevance of his work for Africa in the 21st century.

Some audience members questioned the "lack of focus"

Batha Museum Afternoon Concert

This afternoon's concert showcased what the Fes Festival does best - bringing together diverse musicians from different cultural backgrounds and creating collaborations that take both types of music to a new level. A three part concert, the audience were treated to individual performances by Ballake Sissoko and Debashish Bhattacharya, then a triumphant third act with both musicians on stage.


Sissoko - one of Mali's greatest masters of the kora (a West African 21-stringed harp) - entered the stage as modestly as his reputation suggested. A man of few words, he prefers to speak through his music. And the audience were more than willing to listen. His long fingers gripped two carved wooden handles on either side of the kora’s neck, plucking the strings using only his first finger and thumb, effectively playing 21 strings with only four fingers.

The captivating music quickly cast a spell on both the audience and Sissoko, who played with his eyes shut tight as if in a trance, occasionally nodding and shaking his head with the flourishes in the melody. The first songs' reverie was quickly broken by loud cheers and clapping from a group of Malians in the audience, their pride evident like a home crowd cheering on their team.


The sound of the kora is quite extraordinary, the number of strings allowing for a repetitive bass note underneath a flurry of harp-like harmonies over the top. It has often been described as having a ‘crystalline’ quality and while Sissoko’s music is steeped in ancient West African traditions, he is not afraid to innovate and combine his sound with other instruments from around the world. “Cultural exchange feeds music” is his mantra and this is what we witnessed.

Bhattacharya entered the stage and embraced Sissoko, the first sign of the warm relationship we were to see played out on stage later. He then picked up his famous guitar and held it out to the audience without a word, allowing us to acknowledge the instrument. The Hindustani slide guitar is his creation and pairs his first love — a Hawaiian lap steel guitar, a gift from his father when he was only thee — and the sounds of India.

“It’s a great honour for me to be here among you at the beautiful Fes Festival,” the far more verbose Bhattacharya began. “I would like to thank all the musicians here today, and I would also like to thank myself for being involved,” he joked. “We also need to thank the sound technicians, when I arrived here this morning the place was full of water and they have worked tirelessly all day to prepare this stage. I can talk for hours but I will now play you some ragas, accompanied by the tabla, and you will hear some interplay - like Barcelona versus Real Madrid!”


He commenced playing the Chaturangui guitar, his left hand holding a pink stone shaped like an egg which he slid up and down the strings on the neck of the guitar, his right hand wearing a plectrum on both thumb and forefinger and his fingers flying at great speed, supported by his pinky which rested on the guitar. So many layers of sound emerged that it seemed like multiple instruments are being played together like a small orchestra. The slide of the strings evoked a haunting cry, like a woman singing of a lost love.


The duets with the tabla were also extraordinary, both musicians riffing, picking up each others beats, back and forth, building to a frenetic crescendo, their fingers blurred over the instruments. Eyes squeezed shut, they gestured to the sky and the gods and finished with palms pressed together in a ‘namaste’ to the crowd.

“The maestro is on stage!” Bhattacharya exclaimed as Sissoko joined them. “He is the perfect person for this festival, as he is a person of heart and his music is from his soul.” All three musicians proceeded to retune their instruments to be in perfect harmony and then launched straight into a truly transportive musical journey. Soaring soundscapes were created from repeated melodies between the kora and the guitar, the pace pushed further and further by the tabla. The pleasure in creating wonderful music was evident on the musicians faces, smiles lighting up after a particularly good harmony or solo. The music was full of joy, you could feel the beat of the tabla in your stomach, hear the wail of the guitar in your heart and take the song of the kora into your soul.


“This song is a prayer for all the people who live in this world peacefully and happily with joy and with love,” Bhattacharya said before the final piece. And after such an uplifting performance the audience certainly felt in complete harmony with that sentiment.

Audience reaction:“I think the first song on the kora was almost like Pink Floyd, it had a little psychedelic quality. I liked when they were all playing together, jamming off each other. And the drummer was freaking awesome, he overflowed with an honest enthusiasm.” Oliver Truesdale-Jutras, Ottawa, Canada. First time Festival goer.

Nights in the Medina Part 1

Dar Adiyel - Eduardo Ramos



Specialising in 13th century Arab and Sephardic music, Eduardo Ramos is one of the most well-known artists in Iberian medieval music, which was reflected in the beyond capacity crowd at Dar Adiyel this evening. The organisers took the unusual step of seating the overflowing audience members behind the performers.

Despite the lack of space, Dar Adiyel was the perfect venue for this type of music, it’s medieval tones in complete harmony with the ornate Arabic setting. Indeed, if it were not for the modern equipment we could have been back in the 13th century - a half moon rising over the picturesque scene, the same ancient moon that has witnessed many generations of people playing this music.

Ramos has brought his Portuguese and Spanish medieval music into the present however, and the accompaniment of a djembe drum with his skilled oud playing gave a more contemporary feel to the pieces. The audience picked up on the beat and there was much tapping of feet and enthusiastic clapping along with the music.


Ramos himself was also a figure in motion, and although seated, his constantly flying fingers and knees jiggling in time showed the music flowing through him. His rich, melodic voice came from deep within and the quavering quality to it was produced by him shaking his upper body and shoulders whilst singing.

The proximity of the crowd to the stage in this small venue allows for great involvement - a solo of a high-pitched sliding scale of notes prompted spontaneous applause and rhythmic clapping and his last number ‘Salaam Alekum’ had the whole crowd singing and in a festive mood as they melted out into the medieval night-time medina in search of other musical delights throughout the evening.

Sidi Mohamed Ben Youssef Cultural Complex - Masks of the Moon – Bwaba Ritual

An extraordinary magical ritual from the griot village of Baraba in Burkina Faso

This inspirational ritual is both ancient and contemporary and is an expression of all that is magical about Africa. The sumbo poa or white masks are also called ‘masks of fabric’ belong to the griots of Bereba. These griots are masters of the spoken word, faithful guardians of the oral tradition, trusted keepers of ancestral customs and musicians for all occasions: the griots are responsible for all music in the Bwaba community.


The masks are made of fabric with crests that are richly decorated with cowrie shells, and are only brought out at full moon. They seem connected to some cosmic force beyond us.

When wearing a mask, the griot becomes an incarnation of the god Do. As soon as he puts on the white costume, he ceases to be human: all his relationships with family and friends are suspended. The word – symbol of the human condition – no longer belongs to him. He can hear nothing but the cry of Do and therefore no one else can speak to him. As part of the divinity’s power, he is not responsible for his actions and everything is allowed him.


The appearance of the masks brings joy and unleashes physical excess, anarchic dance and uncoordinated movements, and has emotional affects such as great enthusiasm and over-excitement, all characteristics of the celebration that would mark the return to earth of the god Do.

Some of the masks represent animals (zebra, cockerel, chicken, leopard), while others are responsible for security so that the performance goes smoothly.

The performance in the intimate courtyard of the Cultural Complex was an exhilarating display of ancient the ritual and drumming. The audience was close up and with the addition this year of a small amount of tiered stand seating, everyone had a good view. A proper dance floor had been installed for the performance. Lighting was predominantly blue and open white, giving a lunar pallor to the interior of the courtyard.


The presentation was theatrical, beginning with a cowbell ringing and wailing of women from off stage. Then a tethered moon-masked man ran on stage, followed by another drummer and a xylophone player who between them established a steady rhythm before being joined by a third drummer. The wailing rose in intensity as the first two moon mask performers arrived shaking and shivering violently, with their solid ankle bells creating a jangling cacophony.

White costumes with black markings giving them the appearance of the living dead

The tempo increased and the dancers movements became wild and erratic. Their headpieces, with rope for hair. came into play with a display of head thrashing that rivalled that done by Moroccan women during a hadra trance dance. The drumming was relentless and exhilarating.

Then it was the turn of the women, three of whom sang while circulating the performance area. Then two more moon masked performers arrived - older and more experienced that while they did many of the same moves they did them a a far greater pace - breathtaking.

A child dancer appeared, nestled like a baby on the back of a parent. Yet when he was put down he performed with the same mind numbing speed and intensity. It was a wonderful display of a ritual few in the audience have seen before or even heard of. A great evening.

Batha Museum – Marassa Premiere - Omar Sosa and Urban Tap


Every inch of Omar Sosa oozes creativity. As he arrived on stage in flowing white robes and his statement specs (although without his signature prayer cap), he looked like some kind of spiritual leader. Sosa has previously described his music as an "expression of humanism and Santería" and tonight's first piece, under the great Barbary Oak of the Musée Batha gardens and against the backdrop of visuals by VJ Naj (Jean de Boysson), was an homage to Changó, who for Cubans is the orisha god of drumming, dancing and leadership.

But tonight, Sosa was the leader. With urban tap genius Tamango, and percussionist Gustavo Ovalles, he maintained an intimate chemistry and communication that suggested perhaps that the whole event was improvised. Sosa's piano and keyboards led the way, as Tamango tapped out the 5-beat clave rhythm of the second, salsa-inspired second track and Ovalles accompanied on güiro and congas. No sooner had we arrived in Cuba, though, we left and headed back to Africa, via a brief flirtation with the 1930s New York jazz scene. Tamango's costumes, however, were reminiscent of voodoo rituals and for later pieces, he appeared onstage wearing African masks, finally performing the sandbox shuffle which had so impressed the audience during the Festival opening night.

Tamango

Tonight's spectacle, a magical combination of music, spoken word, images and dance, called Création Marassa (after the divine twins of Voodoo), was a special collaboration for the Fes Sacred Music Festival. Between them, these outstanding artists took the audience from deepest Africa across the Caribbean and brought us safely back again to Fes.


Dar Adiyel – The Royal Art of the Kora directed by Ballaké Sissoko


The 10:30pm concert at Dar Adiyel was another opportunity to see Ballaké Sissoko, kora master. This time, as at the Festival opening, he was on stage with 10 koras in total, including 8 students of the National Institute of Arts in Bamako. "My son doesn't play kora," Sissoko lamented, but it seemed that the future of Mali's indomitable musical lineage is in good hands. The students are taught by Sissoko's cousin, Didier, who was also present, keeping an eye on his young protégés.


Four vocalists - from the eminent Malian musical families Kouyaté and Diabaté - accompanied the koras on a number of tracks, including possibly the best known piece written for kora, the traditional Debe, best known from the In the Heart of the Moon collaboration between Toumani Diabaté and Ali Farka Touré. Bringing the long heritage of the kora right up to date, the final piece was a composition by one of the students. Humbly, the master and teacher, Didier, said "I'll try to play along."

Listening to the kora is like meditating beside a trickling fountain in a Fassi riad. Tonight's venue, the former home of the Adiyel family and now an academy for the preservation of Moroccan Andalusian music rose tall like a cathedral behind the musicians. What better venue or better performance to remind us of the intimate links between Morocco and Mali at this year's Sacred Music Festival, dedicated to Africa?


Sufi Night

The Sufi Night at Dar Tazi was only half full, which was surprising given that Isawa were performing. Along with the Hamadcha, who will close the festival Sufi Nights on Saturday, they are one of the most famous and popular Sufi groups.


The brotherhood (tariqa) of the Isawa (Aïssawa) is a mystical-religious order founded in Meknes in Morocco by Muhammad Ben Aissa (1465-1526 ), nicknamed the "Perfect Master" (Shaykh al-Kamil) and originating in the town of Taroudant. From a clearly orthodox origin, the brotherhood of Aïssâwa has become a complex social phenomenon at the turn of the sacred and the profane, private and public and scholarly and popular cultures.


The Aïssâwa are famous throughout the Arab world for their spiritual music characterised by the use of the oboe-like ghaita  (pictured above), collective singing of religious hymns accompanied by an orchestra of percussion using polyrhythmic elements.

Their complex ritual, which features symbolic dances causing students to trance, takes place firstly in the private sphere in domestic parties organised at the request of individuals (lîla-s), and, second, in the public sphere during the celebrations of fiestas (the moussem-s, which are also pilgrimages) and tourist festivities (folk performances) or religious (Ramadan, Mawlid or birth of the prophet of Islam, Muhammad ) organised by the Moroccan and Algerian States.


At Dar Tazi they were in fine form, producing a solid wall of sound that swept the audience up. For the local Moroccan followers of the Brotherhood it was a joyous occasion - for the visitors for whom it was a first time experience it was, as one young American told The View From Fez,"It was awesome". He was right.

The Buzz ~ Audience feedback with Fatima Matousse

Each day at the Fes Festival of World Sacred Music, we take time to talk with festival goers and find out what people find exciting - and what they think needs improvement. 

Today we talked to various male students who attended the morning forum. They requested  that The View From Fez not  mention their names or their university. Here's what they had to say:

• “If only the panel was in English, I would have benefited much more. It is not that I do not understand French language, but I think that some of the panelists used very high academic French, which makes it hard for locals to understand and access. If only the language used was simpler and not only addressed to the elite.”

• “The presentation about how the arts convey pluralism was very shallow, it did not go deep and the argument of the panelist was not supported by various examples. The examples that were given did not mirror the underground art for example.”

• “I expected that the forum would be more interactive - most of the panelists read from novels, and papers and did not make an eye contact with the audience. I think that the audience should be able to intervene from the very beginning to ensure the exchange between the two.”

• “I feel that students are not involved in the debate, most of the audience is composed of foreigners and the Moroccan elite.”

Hélène Quiuiou, a student from Colombia University, New York, Department of 'Translation and Languages' raised the important issues of code-mixing and code-switching (speakers mixing elements of different languages), which is very current across Africa and can be heard on a daily basis in Morocco, but which was barely mentioned by the forum participants.

“I liked that the panelists belong to diverse backgrounds; they were philosophers, writers, diplomats and artists. This mixture enriches the debate and establishes a link between all the fields,” Hélène said. “My criticism of the panel was the absence of correlation between languages; I felt that the speakers tackled the languages co-existing in various societies as separate entities. There was not a much deeper dwelling on the fact that languages are heavily connected. And that multilingual countries and societies use code-mixing and code-switching all the time.”

Text: Sandy McCutcheon, Vanessa Bonnin, Lynn Sheppard, Fatima Matousse
Photographs: Suzanna Clarke, Vanessa Bonnin, Sandy McCutcheon
Additional translation and research: Helen Ranger

Tomorrow at the Fes Festival

Weather: Sunny with a top temperature of 27 Celsius - a low at night of 12
9 am - Batha Museum - Forum - Hassan Al Wazzan (Leo Africanus) portraying Africa
4.30 pm - Batha Museum - Roberto Fonseca (Cuba) and Fatoumata Diawara (Mali)
8.30 pm and 10.30 pm - Free Festival in the City - Bab Boujloud - Cheb Bilal and Said Berrada

Night in the Medina II
8 pm Dar Adiyel - Li Diaguo on pipa, cello and beatbox (China)
8 pm Sidi Mohamed Ben Youssef Cultural Complex Sonia Mbarek (Tunisia)
9 pm - Batha Museum - Diego El Cigala (Spain)
10.30 pm - Dar Adiyel - The Sacred World of Mugham  (Azerbaijan)
10.30 pm - Sidi Mohamed Ben Youssef Cultural Complex - Nawab Khan and Mantra (India)

Sufi Nights
11 pm Dar Tazi - (Free) Al Ghazali Ensemble- Tariqa Machichiya

The View from Fez  is a Festival Media Partner and will be reporting on all festival events and keeping visitors up to date with any change to the schedule via news stories and on Twitter : @theviewfromfez

See our previous Fes Festival 2015 reports
Fes Festival Opening Night Review
Fes Festival Day Two Review
Fes Festival Day Three


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Festival Forum - Hassan Al Wazzan (Leo Africanus): portraying Africa


Given the impossibility of interaction with the man himself, the format of the Forum, which today discussed 16th century chronicler of Africa, Hassan el Wazzan (Leo Africanus), was ideal and well-moderated by French historian Alexandre Pajon.

Oumelbanine Zhiri

A more diverse panel than yesterday featured three pre-eminent experts on Hassan el Wazzan: Spanish anthropologist José Antonio Gonzalez Alcantud; Moroccan Oumelbanine Zhiri, author several books and articles on Leo Africanus, and Madeleine Dobie, professor at the University of Colombia in New York. These three offered a comprehensive and multi-disciplinary overview of Leo's life in the context of his exile from Al Andalus, his conversion from Islam to Christianity following his capture by corsairs, and of a world undergoing great political geostrategic change.

Madeleine Dobie

As part, perhaps, of a broader African renaissance in our post-colonial times Leo Africanus is a trending topic. As Ms Dobie noted, Malian director Abderrahmane Sissoko (whose film, Timbuktu, was shown tonight as part of the Festival) is preparing a film about him and a play is slated for the Shakespeare Festival in the UK in 2017 (it has been suggested that Leo inspired Shakespeare's Othello). What was interesting from the panel's presentations is how Leo's book, A Description of Africa, published in Italy in 1550, shaped the European discourse on Africa, defined how Africa was seen and understood and even facilitated its ultimate exploitation by the colonial powers. As late as the end of the 19th century, maps of Africa were based on Leo's work.

Tomorrow's Forum will attempt in 3 hours to cover the huge topics of " Contemporary challenges: education, health and geostrategy."

Nights in the Medina II

Batha Museum ~ Roberto Fonseca and Fatoumata Diawara

Once again this afternoon, the audience at the Batha Museum was treated to a trip from Africa to Cuba and back again. Fatoumata Diawara, as resplendent as a ray of sunshine in a traditional Malian costume in yellow, said, "We've been hypnotised with this story of borders. Musically we see connections that transcend borders - the percussion in Cuba is played in the same way as it has been in Africa for centuries."

Fatoumata Diawara

Roberto Fonseca

Roberto Fonseca and Fatoumata Diawara have to be one of the most gorgeous, charismatic - not to mention talented - pairings in world music. Their collaboration dates back to the latter's appearance on Fonseca's 2012 album, Yo. Their live partnership, however, which led to the EP, At Home, released this month, was born at last summer's Womad Festival in the UK. The Cuban-Malian connection, however, dates back way further. It was even due to be honoured in the collaboration which eventually became the Buena Vista Social Club, of which Fonseca was a part, but the Malian contingent never made it to the Caribbean island.


Fortunately for us, Fatou and Fonseca made it to Fes and were on fine form. Over the last couple of years, Fatoumata has been touring almost incessantly and has matured, gaining great confidence and becoming more politically engaged. The collaborative effort reflects this: from the funky Sowa, a track dedicated to those who have never known the love of their parents; to Clandestin, about the hot topic of immigration, with its rock guitars reminiscent of Ali Farka Touré; to a gentle love song inspired by the forced marriage that Fatoumata escaped aged 19. All the while, the 5-beat rhythm which unites Mali and Cuba, was ever-present.

By the end of the set, the pair and their Cubano-Malian band had the place on its feet, dancing to a song dedicated to Nelson Mandela punctuated with piano riffs worthy of Cuban greats twice Roberto's age. As the whole audience clapped along with the clave, Diawara loosened her turban and whipped her braided hair. Fatoumata Diawara clearly sees herself as the voice of the voiceless, the representative of under-represented African youth and women. She is a tour de force and we were so fortunate that her whirlwind stopped in Fes with her Cuban "brother" just for a few hours, so we could hear her voice from the heart of Africa.


Dar Adiyel ~ Li Daiguo


In the first completely solo performance of the festival so far, Li Daiguo proved that it only takes one supremely talented individual to command an audience, albeit one who is proficient on a dozen different instruments, and excels at throat-singing and beat boxing. Daiguo is one of the leading figures in China’s experimental and traditional music communities and tonight the audience at Dar Adiyel found out why.

Daiguo entered the stage humbly, with no words, picked up his pipa (Chinese lute), embraced it with eyes closed for a full ten heartbeats before his fingers began to pluck the four strings, producing a high pitched, repetitive sound like raindrops falling slowly, then accelerating into a more electronic industrial sound which in turn faded to a couple of notes that were distinctly oriental.


He continued to keep his eyes closed into the next piece, with his head thrown back and mouth agape as if breathing the music. He cradled the pipa, his movements expressing great tenderness and played with a manner of one caressing a lover. The crowd, mesmerised by his sound and motion, were suddenly jolted out of their reverie when he leant forward to the microphone and unleashed a volley of vocal beats that brought the piece to an end. Daiguo smiled as if he knew the shocking effect he had just had, and that the audience were now in the palm of his hand.

As well as powerful discord and changes of pace, Daiguo also knew how to utilise the power of silence, unafraid to leave long pauses between notes. He didn’t feel the need to fill every second with sound and moments of silence suffused the entire space, the crowd so immersed you could have heard a feather floating.


Daiguo switched to the cello, bowed one continuous note and commenced throat singing - a whistling sound like a bird of prey soaring over a mountain top creating a timeless and ancient soundscape. The range of his voice was startling, at times deep and guttural like monks chanting, sometimes loud with anguished cries. He also utilised the bow in a variety of different ways, sometimes almost sawing the strings, other times bashing the camien - always experimenting and pushing the limits of the instrument.

After the first shock the audience remained on edge throughout the performance, waiting for the next unexpected development. Diaguo commanded attention - he grabbed it early on and kept the crowd absorbed with his total focus, not speaking until one word at the very end. A simple "thank you".

Sidi Mohamed Ben Youssef Cultural Complex ~ Wajd 
A programme created for the Fes Festival by Sonia Mbarek

We are the protectors of the Sun.
There is only one reason we have followed God into this world:
To encourage laughter, freedom, dance and love ~ Hafiz

Sonia Mbarek would have loved to "encourage laughter, freedom, dance and love", but sadly had only forty-five people in the audience when she began, although the number rose to around sixty after her first song. The small crowd was a disappointment, especially in such a spacious and beautifully simple venue.

But, despite the small numbers, Mbarek and her five piece band filled the Cultural Complex with a air of grace as they delivered a programme that was both interesting and varied.


After a gentle introductory piece from cello and ney (wooden flute) Sonia Mbarek stepped up to the microphone. Her voice, sweet yet powerful, expressive and full of longing, was complimented by three members of her band providing backing vocals. There is much subtlety in the Tunisian touboûs with accents of Charki maqam and while there is depth and harmony in Sonia M’barek’s interpretations, it is always refined and nuanced. If there were to be any criticism it would be that her approach at times was technical and almost academic rather than produced from deep within.

With a background in Sufi contemplation, Mbarek sang around a dozen sumptuous works by great poets inspired by peace and personal joy - including works by Andaloussi (Anta fil Maoudhii) and Mohamed Iqbal (Mal ishq). Half way through her set she gave a wonderful rendition of one of the main works of the late Laâroussi Ben Khemiss Ettourki - Ennabi wi m’thala.


For the musicologically minded, it was interesting that the rhythms of this concert were chosen in accordance with those used in the various styles of Sufi inshad, such as daffa, Dkhoul, Btaïhi, Aissaoui and Wahda. These are allied to the mood of tarab (musical ecstasy) and the tempo of spiritual songs perpetually in search of trance and exaltation of the spirit. Tonight Sonia Mbarek may not have produced the ecstasy, but she did show us the direction in which it lies.

Batha Museum ~ Diego El Cigala



This was without a doubt, the busiest Batha concert so far, despite the many other events on offer. As we waited for the concert to begin, more people kept pouring in. And we waited. And waited. Someone instigated some slow clapping. Finally, the 5-piece band (Spanish guitar, electric guitar, double bass, percussion and piano) came on stage around 9:30pm to play a couple of lounge jazz numbers... Not quite what the audience had been expecting, but pleasant nonetheless. Once Diego el Cigala finally appeared, "very happy to be in Morocco and Fes for the first time," he received rapturous applause which hardly stopped until the concert ended 2 hours later.

Double grammy-winning El Cigala has a clear voice, the timbre of which reveals his gypsy heritage. He was billed in the programme as a "major voice of flamenco," however the initial numbers he sang - all in Spanish - were much closer to jazz than the drama of flamenco. He softly squeezed his heavily-jewelled hands together in the flamenco rhythm but there was little of the temperament usually associated with the genre.

Benjamin Bouzaglou - the crowd favourite, but only two songs

After a few numbers during which the tempo gradually increased, El Cigala invited Judeo-Andalusian singer Benjamin Bouzaglou on stage. Bouzaglou is a regular at Moroccan festivals of Andalusian music and his appearance was much anticipated, but disappointingly, he and the Spaniard only did two songs together, each singing in his native language. The effect was stunning and the audience loved it. The singers visibly enjoyed their collaboration, but we saw no more of Benjamin this evening, which was a great pity.


El Cigala's popularity was apparently in no way diminished, however, as he exited the stage and left his band to demonstrate their very considerable talents. Sadly, even when on stage, he hardly interacted with the audience. At times the performance felt like the jazz band in the corner of a hotel lobby rather than that of a flamenco maestro. Towards the end, they rattled through some piano-heavy Cuban-style numbers, influenced by El Cigala's 2003 collaboration with the late Cuban pianist, Bebo Valdés. These were exhilarating, but still not flamenco. By the end of the concert, however, the large audience gave him a standing ovation, shouting 'una otra,' wanting more. One more Cuban number and the El Cigala phenomenon was over.


Dar Adiyel ~ The Sacred World of Mugham

Arzu Alieva: voice
Elchan Mansurov: kamancheh (string instrument)
Malik Mansuro: tar (long-necked string instrument)
Shirzaa Fazaliev: balaban (double-reed wind instrument) and zurna (woodwind instrument)


The concert started as gently as a breeze over a grassy plain; with haunting notes from a balaban, a double-reed wooden flute. Next it was the turn of the kamancheh, a long-necked stringed instrument with a bulbous base, inlaid with mother of pearl, which sounded like a cross between a violin and a sitar, before the steel stringed tar took its turn. Occassionally Arzu Alieva, kept rhythm on a daf, a frame drum covered in goatskin. Together, the instruments built up a soundscape - echoing the rich Ottoman and Persian traditions that are the origin of the mugham tradition of Azerbaijan. ​​


When Arzu Alieva began to sing, her voice was mournful, piercing and vibrant. She used a technique between a chest voice and a head voice, ululating in a way reminiscent of overtone singing.

Traditional Azerbaijani music has played a dominant role in the Caucasus and Central Asia. It has also benefited from exchange with other cultures in neighbouring countries: Georgians, Armenians, Turks, Dagestanis, Uzbeks and Turkmens. It finds its expression in the mugham, a vast vocal and instrumental oeuvre that depicts with great passion and refinement a whole range of expressions of love.

Many of the audience at Dar Adiyel relaxed on ​the carpets, and let the evocative music wash over them. Contained in the notes was the sound of the wind, the beats of horse hooves, and the call of a lone voice across a vast distance.


The haunting beauty of Azerbaijani songs was glorified by their national poet, Nizami Ganjavi:

Dear singer, take your saz in your arms,

Play sweet music for us,

Don't limit your range,

Our melodies are broad and rich.

Sidi Mohamed Ben Youssef Cultural Complex ~ Nawab Khan and Mantra

Nawab Khan

A performance of "therapeutic raga" may sound a little worthy, but Nawab Khan turns the event into one of delight. It should be remembered that the word "raga' derives from the Sanskrit ranj meaning ‘that which affects or influences the spirit and brings pleasure’. The purpose of a raga is to evoke aesthetic delight, to offer the listener a ‘flavour’ to taste, with an approach that has emerged over more than a thousand years.

Nawab Khan specialises in awakening the therapeutic aspects of the Indian modal system that is sensual, sensitive and poetic. His technique, like that of any good therapist, is to guide the audience with gentle phrases delivered in hushed tones. He explained that the music they would present came from the various religions from the Indian sub-continent.

However, the music, when it began, spoke for itself - it's initial effect being therapeutic in its own right. Some in the rather small audience succumbed and lowered themselves to the carpet, where, eyes shut, they drifted off in an ethereal cloud of bliss.


The four man group's first offering was immediately recognisable to the few local Moroccans in the audience, as coming from the Muslim tradition - Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Rahim. "In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful". The music was quiet, gently mesmeric and ephemeral - drifting over the audience like a soft warm breeze.

As the balmy evening continued and the half moon became visible above the courtyard, the tempo increased, driven by some excellent tabla and sarangi accompaniment.

If it is indeed therapy, then Nawab Khan  is the therapist. This young classical musician from Jodhpur in Rajasthan and his companions perform on the Persian and Kashmiri santoor (stringed instrument), the sarangi (dulcimer) and tabla to guide the audience through the therapeutic, emotional labyrinth that is Indian music.

Sufi Night at Dar Tazi


Tariqa Machichiya is a Moroccan musical group founded in the beginning of the nineties by Sheikh Mohammed Hanini and is the custodian of the sacred traditions of classical Arab songs.

 The group is based in the mountains above Tetouan and if tonights performance is anything to go by they deserve their reputation for fine renditions of Arab-Muslim musical traditional music with a touch of musical originality and creativity. While playing traditional music the Brotherhood employs non-traditional instruments (such as a double bass) and in many ways is closer to their alternative name - the Al Ghazali Ensemble .


However, while their repertoire is varied and interesting, it is not in the same league as the Isawa, Gnaoua or Hamadcha groups who forge their way towards the divine in a blaze of energy. The Machichiya are more sedate and most probably better musically disciplined. Whatever the case, the large, mostly Moroccan, crowd at Dar Tazi loved it.



The Buzz ~ Audience feedback with Fatima Matousse


Each day at the Fes Festival of World Sacred Music, we take time to talk with festival goers and find out what people attending the festival are talking about.

Youness Abeddour, Casablanca: "I am from Fes but I currently work in Casablanca, and I specifically came just to see Diego El Cigala performe with Benajmine Bouzaglou. I cannot resist not to come; it is an amazing place for networking, reuniting with friends and learning about other cultures through music. I am really happy to see Diego El Cigala play with Benjamin. But, I was really disappointed that Benjamine did not sing for a longer time. He performed very quickly and disappeared.”

Elena Grodzievskagan, Russia: It is Elena’s first time in Fes and she came to see the festival which she enjoyed a lot as she expressed. She adds “It is my first time ever to see Diego and Benjamine perform together, which is fascinating. My favorite artist during the show was the guitarist of the band of Diego, he was so absorbed and conveys to many emotions through his guitar.”

Haim Casas, Spain: Haim lives across the borders from Morocco and he comes often because he feels at home, he said. Haim’s favorite part during the show was the marriage of Judeo-Arabo music and Flamenco as they have already got so many melodies in common, both singers were complementing each other despite the two different languages they sung in: Spanish and Arabic.

Hamoud Abeddour:“The last edition I have attended for this festival was in 2012 and I came just to see Diego El Cigala and Benjamine Bouzaglou. Moreover, I think that their singing together was really short and I did not get to see Benjamine plays for a longer time, which I did not understand, I won’t deny that I spent great time enjoying the show.”

Jean Pierre Deyls. France: He told The View From Fez that it was 5 years ago when he first came to Morocco and that was when he first attended the Fes Festival of World Sacred Music. "Since then I have never missed any edition. I am very interested in intercultural exchange which was portrayed today in the music performance where both India and Mali shared the stage. It was my first time to see a Malian perform with an Indian which I found quite interesting. However, I was disappointed that the concert yesterday was cancelled and I still have not been reimbursement which kind of frustrating as I paid 80 Euros to see Oumou Sangare".

Eva Binder, Austria: This is actually my first time in Morocco, I heard from some friends back in Austria about the festival and I decided to attend this year. I am in love with spiritual music and I have got a friend who is studying Barbara music at the university. I have fallen in love with the Medina of Fes already, I am enjoying it and I am definitely planning to come back.

Eva Monteilhet, France:  This is my first visit to Morocco, I like the festival, it is amazing especially that it is happening in such a beautiful, peaceful and historical place. The musicians are so happy and warm, I have a feeling that they are a family which I sometimes miss in Europeans concerts where music has become just a business and you don’t see the full enjoyment of artists on stage. What I did not appreciate much is that most of the audience is European and more specifically French; I did not see many Moroccans which was disappointing. I felt that the festival is made for Europeans more than locals. So far, I am glad to be here, I see everyone smiles.

Anass Lazrak, Fes, Morocco: I am from Fes and I always attend some of the events. I am much more interested in Andalusian music as I have grown up with it. What I really admire about the festival is that it is a contact zone for numerous cultures and people. However, some locals cannot afford to attend due to several reasons. For instance, the ordinary citizen is much taken by securing the daily needs for his or her family which is a challenge that prevents this category of people to even think to consume culture and attend concerts. Moroccans who attend the festival belong to a middle or a high class. I have also noticed that the festival is growing every year. At the very beginning, you would only see Moroccans and French people. However, now the audience is much more diverse. I have noticed that only people of certain age (retired) that afford to come as the timing is not suitable for families as the kids are attending school at this time of the year.

Lisa Grabenwager, Austria: I came across the festival on the internet and  decided to come to Morocco for the first time. The spiritual music does not leave any space for you to decide to love it or not; it just haunts your soul. Fez is a magical place and I hope to be lucky enough to come back next year too.

Anantha Krishnan, India: I think that thanks to the festival more attention is being paid to spiritual music and other festivals like it are starting to happen in various other parts of the world. I believe that Fes, as a place, remains special because of its architecture and histories. I have seen the Kora concerts before but the Dar Adiyel venue made it unique. I would like to comment on the fact that some of the music are irrelevant to spiritual music and the success of this festival depends on having a focus on the world scared music. I was also disappointed that the organisers did not have a plan B for the concert that was cancelled because of the heavy rain.

Saran Kouyaté,  Mali:  (Saran is one of the singers with The Royal Art of the Kora) This is my first time in Fes. I love it and the audience seemed quite interested and happy. I have started singing at the age of 5 and all my professors encouraged me to become a professional singer. I feel that the band and I are a family performing together.

Text: Sandy McCutcheon, Vanessa Bonnin, Lynn Sheppard, Fatima Matousse
Photographs: Suzanna Clarke, Vanessa Bonnin, Sandy McCutcheon
Additional translation and research: Helen Ranger

Tomorrow at the Fes Festival

Weather: Warm and sunny with a top temperature of 31 Celsius - a low at night of 12
9 am - Batha Museum - Forum - Contemporary Challenges - Education and Health
8.30 pm and 10.30 pm - Free Festival in the City - Bab Boujloud - Fettah Ngadi followed by Mouslim

Night in the Medina III

7 pm Sidi Mohamed Ben Youssef Cultural Complex - Bhagavata Mela Ritual - (India)
8 pm  & 10.30 pm Dar Adiyel - Sirat Al-Hilali with Ramadan Hassan and Musicians of the Nile
9 pm - Batha Museum - Dance Memory, Dance - (Sardinia and Corsica)
10.30 pm - Sidi Mohamed Ben Youssef Cultural Complex - Badr Rami  - Muwashshah of Aleppo

Sufi Nights
11 pm Dar Tazi - (Free) Tariqa Siqilliyya with Hajj Muhammad Bennis

The View from Fez  is a Festival Media Partner and is covering all festival events and keeping visitors up to date with any change to the schedule via news stories and on Twitter : @theviewfromfez

See our previous Fes Festival 2015 reports
Fes Festival Opening Night
Fes Festival Day Two 
Fes Festival Day Three
Fes Festival Day Four


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This important forum takes place in Fez from the 29th of May to the 31st at the Palais des Congrès, Fez, Morocco 

The seventh edition of the Mediterranean Women Forum is open to everyone and with a special welcome to those who are visiting Fez for the Fes Festival.

While the post-Arab Spring turmoil is affecting men, women, and children, specific types of violence systematically target women and girls. The post-Arab Spring‘s initial backlash on women’s rights is not only gathering momentum everyday, but it is developing into unprecedented new types of violence against women with the mounting tide of Jihadism.

The new forms of violence range from the imposition of the niqab (total veiling), the ban of women from public unless they are accompanied by a male member of the family, a return of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) for women between the ages of 11 and 46, stoning to death of (supposedly) adulterous women, assassination of female activists, Jihad al-Nikah (brainwashed women offering sex in support of the Jihadists), and enslavement (buying/selling of women and girls). These new forms of violence are indirectly sanctioning the already familiar types such as moralisation incriminating women for any social crisis, domestic battering, increased sexual harassment, forced marriage, and (gang) rape.

The seventh edition of the Mediterranean Women Forum aims at documenting and unveiling these new types of violence, linking them to the familiar types, understanding their social, economic and political ramifications, digging out their surface and deeper underpinnings especially in relation to Jihadism, and proposing strategies to alleviate and gradually stop them.

Languages of the Forum: Arabic, French, English (simultaneous translation provided)

Contacts: Prof. Dr. Fatima Sadiqi (ISIS), Academic Director
sadiqi_fatima@yahoo.fr
Ms Abir Ibourk (KAS), Logistics Director
ibourk.abir@gmail.com

A full programme is available in PDF form. If you would like a copy please email theviewfromfez@gmail.com with "Forum PDF" in the subject line

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Festival Forum
Topic: Contemporary challenges: education, health and geostrategy

Today's final Forum faced the challenging task of covering a wide range of global issues in a short morning. There was a danger that the topics would be covered too superficially or in too much depth for the three hour slot. However, a competent selection of panellists and a smaller, but engaged, audience ensured a decent discussion of a number of pertinent points regarding current affairs in Africa. The focus was intended to be on education and public health, but the majority of speakers specialised in the former. Several speakers had interesting anecdotes about the influence of actors such as international media, political elites, multinational companies and property speculators in Africa.

Phinith Chanthalangsy

Two speakers in particular proposed possible solutions for the issue of education and career mobility in Africa. Phinith Chanthalangsy, from the UNESCO office in Rabat, talked about his organisation's efforts to promote culture and human rights through South-South dialogue. Majida Bargach from Virginia University in the US had a very pragmatic proposal to equip young Africans to fulfil their potential. Citing the problem of borders closed to student exchanges in Europe and the US, she suggested that students travel between African countries to undertake work experience and become specialists in the African workplace. An audience member with connections to the Farage group encouraged her to discuss with him how the private sector might support such an initiative.

Majida Bargach

The range of issues was much more accessible to the audience members than on previous days, and as a result, many intervened from the floor with their own experience, as well as with questions. One summarised the challenge of education by citing Fatoumata Diawara, who played in the same venue yesterday: "Let our youth cross borders and gain the skills they need. They will come home and rebuild our countries."

Nights in the Medina III
Dar Adiyel ~ Sirat Al-Hilali

The epic Hilal story from the Poets of Upper Egypt
Ramadan Hassan, Mohammed Haza Nasra al Din and the Musicians of the Nile


The Hilal epic tells of the invasion of the Maghreb during the 11th century by the Beni Hilal and Beni Soleim tribes from the Arab Peninsula. There are still traces of this tale in Upper Egypt, where poets of gypsy origin sing this story accompanied by a rababah, a kind of fiddle with two horsehair strings and a coconut shell body, similar to the Arab rabab.

Tonight's five member all-male group resembled a troupe of itinerant troubadours. With their weather-worn faces and slightly tatty turbans, they looked as if they might have walked from Luxor to be with us, entertaining villages and gatherings along their way. Rather than invading the Maghreb, as did the 6000-strong Beni Hilal tribe about whom they sang, they enraptured their listeners.


The musical accompaniment to the story featured other traditional instruments of North Africa and Arabia in addition to the two rababah, including a large flat def (bindir) drum, a darbuka (goblet drum) and a range of flutes. Each section of the epic, which was sung, was punctuated by a musical solo. The most exciting of these was from the darbuka player, who encouraged audience participation through clapping, although our appreciation of his rhythm apparently left a lot to be desired! He laughed at our efforts as he returned to deftly tap out his own story on the skin of his drum. With these interludes, the performance was entirely accessible and enjoyable for those who did not understand the poetry element. This was confirmed by a call for "encore" at the end, which was graciously granted. There were few Moroccans in the audience, suggesting that those who had enjoyed it so much had not necessarily followed the complex story of the brave and rich men of Beni Hilal.


For those who are wondering what happens in the traditional 500-hour version, the El Hilali cross Egypt and settle in Tunisia, where they break a promise with the ruling Emir and go on to devastate the country. They continue their invasion into Libya and parts of Algeria, mounting raids, setting up independent principalities, and - fatally - continuing to fight among themselves. The infighting was their downfall. Add a little mystery, intrigue, double-crossing and seduction and you have all the makings of an 11th century soap opera!

Sidi Mohamed Ben Youssef Cultural Complex ~ Bhagavata Mela Ritual

Lord Krishna

The Festival programme presented a unique opportunity this evening - the chance to witness a sacred theatre group from India perform their ancient Sanskrit tribute to Lord Vishnu for the first time ever outside of their tiny village of Melattur in Tamil Nadu. Usually only performed once a year, on the birthday of Lord Narasimha (the fourth incarnation of Vishnu) in the Lord Sri Varadaraja Temple, the theatre group are embarking on a tour of six cities of which Fes was the first.


This form of theatre from South India is particularly moving. It is one of the last forms of ritual theatre in the sub-continent, originating in an India that is fast disappearing under the weight of globalisation. The village artists are deeply religious and for them, what counts more than any artistic idea is making the gods come to life, almost incarnating them. Exuberant, but also often gauche and naïve, this form of theatre evokes all the great theatres of the ancient world that keep alive the divine epics and mix theatre, music and dance.

The first indication that this was indeed a sacred ritual and not just entertainment was the musicians offerings of coconut, muttered prayers and the lighting of a candle at a miniature shrine with an image of Lord Narasimha, placed to the right of the stage, before the performance began.

A long low chant like an “oum” slowly built to a song accompanied by the venu (Carnatic flute) and mridangam (drum). The narrator, (thankfully) in English, announced that “the spirit of Ganesha will now enter and bless the audience and thus commences the play”.

The Demon King tries to turn Lord Shiva to ashes

The following hour and half showcased a spectacle of wonderfully costumed actors who played out a story of good triumphing over evil. A Demon King had convinced Lord Shiva to give him the power to reduce anyone to ashes by placing his hand on their head. Despite advising him not to misuse the power, the Demon King then tries to turn Lord Shiva to ashes. Shiva flees and goes into hiding. Then, both the soldiers of the Demon King and the gods search for Lord Shiva to no avail. The gods turn to Lord Vishnu for help, who disguises himself as a woman to entice the Demon King. In order to marry the ‘woman’ the Demon King is tricked into placing both his hands on his own head, thus turning himself to ashes
.

Lord Vishnu disguised as a women entices the Demon King

The narration was useful for a foreign audience to understand what would be a well-known tale to Hindus. However, much of the communication was done through dance, gesture, song and exaggerated facial expressions, “rather like an English pantomime” as one audience member commented. Another similarity to the medium was that all female characters were played by men. The style had echoes of the more well-known Kathkali theatre of Kerala, however as the theatre groups president pointed out, “Kathkali is much slower paced than ours”.

Sri S. Natarajan, President of the Bhagavata Mela group said after the performance: “First of all I want to thank the Festival and Morocco for having us here, we are very honoured. It was wonderful to perform for a foreign audience, I really enjoyed watching the reactions on the people’s faces as I danced. One unfortunate thing, we started twenty minutes late so I had to cut short some of the performance. We are going to Paris next, six places in total.”

Lord Vishnu

First time Festival goer Victoria Kindell said of the performance: “It was very colourful and visual, with the moving of the eyes and dramatic emotions, and intricate and disciplined dance. We were lucky to have an introduction to a different culture that we wouldn’t have been exposed to otherwise. I was very grateful for the English narrator, as the explanation of the story in the introduction was only in French, which would have been very limiting otherwise for most of the audience.”

Batha Museum ~ Dance Memory, Dance

On an idyllic evening in Fez the Batha Museum was the perfect setting for a mix of polyphony and jazz.  The venue had fewer chairs in place, most of them filled with festival visitors from Spain, Italy Germany and France. Tonight, the Moroccans are a minority and the overall audience numbers dramatically down from the level during the Sufi Festival a few weeks ago.


Six members of the the Corsican polyphonic group A Filetta filed on stage dressed in what has become traditional dress for polyphony - untucked black shirts and trousers. They began quietly, accompanied by Italian bandoneon (concertina) player Daniele Di Bonaventura.


Sitting to one side of the stage is Paolo Fresu,  a jazzman in the Sardinian tradition. For a while he seems lost in his own thoughts then he picks up his muted trumpet and softly joins in like a seventh voice; shy and hesitantly intruding...

After the first short number the lead singer explains (in French) that their programme is based on the island poets Aimé Césaire and Jean Nicoli. Césaire was a writer, poet and playwright from Martinique; Nicoli was a teacher and member of the resistance, executed in 1943 during the Italian fascist period.


After the second song the trumpet mute came off but at no time did it dominate the vocals. Between songs Paolo Fres, trumpet on his knees, his gaze on the carpet at his feet. At times his head would nod in time to the music as if he was waiting for the jazz muse to inspire him. Only when he bent to turn a page did it become apparent he was reading the music score.As the tempo increased the trumpet produced some subtle riffs which developed into a teasing interplay between the accordion and the trumpet. Meanwhile the choir leader climbed above the drone produced by his choristers to engage in some splendid vocal gymnastics.


There was (thankfully after the previous night) a distinct lack of ego displayed by all the performers. In its place was a charming humility that invited a connection between audience and performers.   However, polyphonic singing accompanied by an accordion lacks the spine-tingling chill produced by groups who sing pure a capella. Nevertheless, it was appreciated by many in the audience.

Corsicans and Italians, polyphonists and jazzmen, singing, playing trumpet and bandoneon, gave us a concert that was pleasant and relaxing but for all of that, never took off.

Sidi Mohamed Ben Youssef Cultural Complex ~ Badr Rami
The great Muwashshah tradition of Aleppo


Badr Rami was born into a musical family in Morocco to Syrian parents. He is a bit of a legend in Morocco, which, for those unfamiliar with the Syrian Muwashshah genre, - texts of a particular Arabic poetic form set to music - may be hard to fathom. This is his second consecutive year at the Fes Sacred Music Festival, so he clearly sells. Having said that, at around €25 a ticket, there were not many Moroccans in the audience tonight, although those present were very enthusiastic. A couple of women, sitting around the venue's large ornamental fountain, even got up to dance in it. Thankfully it was empty of water.

The concert was extremely slick. The 11-piece band appeared on stage in regulation black suits, including a 6-man string section (oud, 3 fiddles, a cello and a box zither), the darbuka (goblet drum), and a tambourine plus 3 backing singers.

Rami appeared to much applause, practically bursting out of his suit jacket, once they had played an introductory piece. In the vast courtyard of the Sidi Mohamed Ben Youssef Cultural Complex, it felt like an event arranged for TV for transmission on a festive occasion. It was so polished, the uninitiated could not even scratch the surface. Although the Moroccans in the audience happily clapped along, it felt like there was little warmth in the performance: Rami did not even interact with the fans until after the fourth song and the musicians didn't even look like they were particularly enjoying themselves.


This was the second gig tonight based on centuries old Arabic poetry. Despite the smooth and glossy production and the remarkable popularity of Badr Rami, his musical form and his storytelling felt less accessible than that of the Musicians of the Nile who had played earlier. The Egyptian El Hilali epic is supposed to be told over 500 hours. Forty-five minutes in, Rami's set felt like it might last that long. In the end, the audience were the judges and they loved it - the legend that is Badr Rami continues.

Sufi Nights at Dar Tazi ~ Tariqa Skalliyya

Hajj Muhammad Bennis

After a relatively quiet week at the Sufi nights, the largest crowd we have seen this evening and probably the largest at any venue, was at Dar Tazi. There was no doubt that the crowd puller was Hajj Muhammad Bennis. His voice and knowledge are much in demand here, and therefore he does not limit himself to one tariqa (Sufi order). In his poetic way of speaking he says, “like a bird that is not confined to one tree, I sing with many different orders here in Fez.”

The audience was full of Moroccan families, with lots of young children and toddlers, for possibly their first Sufi experience. Sitting in the front row of the crowd of several hundred was the regular contingent of Sufi practitioners who are always present at such events, as they were at the Fes Festival of Sufi Culture some weeks ago.

One of the many young Sufis in the tariqa

Hajj Muhammad is arguably the most important munshid (Sufi singer) in Fez and has been promoting Sufi samā` for years by performing, recording, and teaching young singers. It was noticeable that tonight the twenty-three member tariqa contained many young Sufis - a great sign for the future.

Tonight he led the Tariqa Skalliyya not from his usual position sitting centre stage, but in the shadows at the front, conducting "his orchestra" in the old style, using only voices and no instruments.

As they picked up the pace, solo singers took a turn you could hear cries of  “Allah!” from the audience when a soloist finished a particularly beautiful passage where poetry and melody were combined to create a transcendent space. It was an evening of truly spiritual music.


The Buzz ~ Audience feedback with Fatima Matousse

Each day at the Fes Festival of World Sacred Music, we take time to talk with festival goers and find out what people attending the festival are talking about.

Assia Fasia, Fez: "I come from France and I discovered Fez for the first time a year ago. I decided that it is my home and I have lived here since then. In addition the festival is magical and stirs all kind of beautiful emotions deep down your inner self."

Mohamed Azami, Fez:  "The souls inhabiting the houses in Fez must be happy to hear this music. I want to refer to Tahar Ben Jelloun when he said that Fez houses are special because they get to share the sky and the stars."

Jalil El Hayan and Nadia Fatri, Fez: "The festival is magical because of the chosen spaces such as Bab Makina and the Batha Museum. These places are rich in history; their walls tell stories which adds to the magic of the music itself. Also, we personally find the music’s quality exceeds the audience’s expectations. This year’s Festival is exceptional, with its invitation to delve into and celebrate our Africans roots. We consider Morocco as a bridge between African and European cultures. Though we were disappointed  because of the weather, especially that many events were cancelled." Nadia added that it was a chance for her to discover various African rhythms, melodies and dances which makes this program special.

Majda Alaoui and Nadia Haida, Paris, France: Majda and Nadia are originally from Morocco but live in Paris. They both came specifically to see the festival. They were enjoying the music and loved the melodies of Ramadan Hassan and his troupe. “At the very beginning of the festival, we were disappointed as the organisers did not have plan B (for the rain) during the Oumou Sangare concert. But other that, the musicians are amazing, the forum was also complementing the shows. I also liked that there are some free concerts for people who cannot afford it."

Jake, UK: It is Jake’s second time in Morocco, he said how much world music means to him. He sees Fez as a melting pot of cultures both historically and artistically and argues that when cultures meet, they enrich each other and that is what the festival is promoting.

Rabia Mestaoui, Fez: Rabia is a teacher from Fez. “I try to attend some of the events every year, but not all. For instance, I am really interested in the forum and music but my work load does not allow me to attend whenever I wish to; it is also the case of many colleagues of mine. I would love the organisers to involve more locals to ensure that there is a balance between national artists and international ones. The festival can also help emerging artists by giving them chances to play with professional ones.”

Iness Forissier, France: Ines was amazed by the forums and feels that she is in a journey in all over Africa not just Morocco. However, she thinks that last year was much more organised.

Aly Ndao, (Student in Morocco, Department of Gender, Society and Culture) Senegal: It is Aly’s first time at the Festival and he is attending all the forums as they enrich his academic studies.  However, he complains that the concerts are not affordable for students.  “I would love if there is a discount for students or free concerts to spread the benefits.”

Thelma Stone and Valerie Godson, UK: “This is my first time in Morocco. I came specifically for the festival, thanks to a friend of ours who has been a fan of the event. I have really enjoyed the concerts very much and our favourite concert so far is the Kurdish band that was on the opening night. We have been attending forums as well but we think that some of them are not interactive as much as others. But, overall, it is really a blessing to be here.”

Text: Sandy McCutcheon, Vanessa Bonnin, Lynn Sheppard, Fatima Matousse
Photographs: Suzanna Clarke, Vanessa Bonnin, Sandy McCutcheon
Additional translation and research: Helen Ranger

Tomorrow at the Fes Festival

Weather: Warm and sunny with a top temperature of 32 Celsius - a low at night of 16
11 am - Batha Museum - Piano recital by Marouane Benabdallah
4.30 pm - Batha Museum - Moroccan Zakharif Ensemble with Nabil Benabdejalil
8.30 pm and 10.30 pm - Free Festival in the City - Bab Boujloud - Saida Charaf - Orchestre Asri.
9 pm - Bab Makina - The Temptations with Dennis Edwards

Sufi Nights
11 pm Dar Tazi - (Free) Tariqa Darqawiya

The View from Fez  is a Festival Media Partner and is covering all festival events and keeping visitors up to date with any change to the schedule via news stories and on Twitter : @theviewfromfez

See our previous Fes Festival 2015 reports
Fes Festival Opening Night
Fes Festival Day Two 
Fes Festival Day Three
Fes Festival Day Four
Fes Festival Day Five


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It was another fascinating day at the Fes Festival of World Sacred Music. It began with a sublime piano recital at the Batha Museum and ended with tales of lost luggage and a band that wasn't what most people expected...

La Conférence des oiseaux - Conference of the birds at Batha?

Marouane Benabdallah's exploration of Arab classical music at the Batha Museum was superb. After a few introductory words he sat at the piano, paused for a second or two and then began playing. It was immediately apparent that we were being treated to something special.

His first piece, composed by Dia Succari (1938-2010), was delivered with a gentle lyricism to the accompaniment of a chorus of birds from high in the tree above the stage.

His selection of music ranged from his own arrangement of Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921): Africa, Fantaisie op.89 to the tender, religiously inspired, La nuit du destin (Night of Destiny) by Dia Succari. The title of the piece alludes to the twenty-seventh night of the holy month of Ramadan.

Other pieces included Badrou Hosnen by Zad Moultaka composed for the Maqam Siba, one of the modes used in the psalms of the Qur’an; and Al Male Rachamim by Mohammed Fairouz, a prayer that is part of Jewish funerary rites. It was a repertoire almost unknown to the greater public in which the modes and rhythms of Arab music meld with the forms and structures of western classical music to create an original and unique synthesis.


The Saint-Saëns was an opportunity to display his undoubted virtuosity and irresistible dynamism and he dd so without theatrics or showmanship, but rather with the demeanour of a musician immersed in the music. Much of the time he played with his eyes shut, and a serene expression on his face. Of particular interest was piece by Moroccan composer Nabil Benabdeljalil (b 1972), who was due to give his own concert in the same venue later in the day. His sensual, crepuscular, Nocturne nº2 "Magdalena" was a delight.

Born in Rabat in 1982, Benabdallah took his first piano lessons at the age of four with his mother, a music teacher. Leaving Morocco at the age of 13 for further musical training at the Conservatoire Béla Bartók and then at the Académie Franz Liszt, both in Budapest.

 In 2008 he was awarded a prize from the Hungarian Parliament ‘in recognition of his exceptional talent and accomplishments in music’ – an honour that he shares with artists such as Placido Domingo, José Cura and other luminaries.


Marouane Benabdallah has always considered himself a musician rather than simply a pianist. Understanding how music works is his major concern, which is why he first studied theory, analysis, counterpoint and direction to integrate these alongside his piano classes. The result of all this hard work and study is what we witnessed today: a seemingly effortless display by a world class virtuoso. It will remain a festival highlight.


Thunder had been rumbling around the hills which surround Fez for an hour, and the wind was picking up, scattering leaves and the odd raindrop across the auditorium at the Batha Museum. As the committed audience members filed in, the management and technical team were still discussing contingency plans in the event of a storm.

Nabil Benabdeljalil

As the Zakharif Ensemble took to the stage in striped jackets reminiscent of a Speakeasy or Barber Shop quartet, the wind began to drop, as if in response to Nabil Benabdeljalil's homage to Schumann, and the birds of the Batha gardens began to sing again.

Before we could get used to the tranquil, tinkling piano, however, the saxophone joined in and the piece gained an altogether more jazzy, almost klezmer quality, before becoming Gerschwin-esque.


As the oud joined the arrangement, we travelled east once again and the piece gained an Arabian feel. Benabdeljalil had promised us a journey "from Egypt to Austria and the US", and we were fortunate all to have tickets!

After every couple of pieces, Benabdeljalil, a young Moroccan composer who received his training at the Académie Tchaikovski in Kiev, Ukraine, would introduce the next works and explain the genesis and inspiration behind them.


Despite his relative youth, he is already a well-known figure and he admitted that one of his compositions was part of the set of Marouane Benabdullah this morning in the same venue. Although he is very clearly the leader of the ensemble and composer of most of the pieces they played, he came across as humble and extremely grateful for the diverse input and skills of his fellow musicians. It was also clear that - despite his classical background, which shone through in a couple of his own compositions for piano - he enjoys flirting with different genres, breaking down boundaries and teasing the audience with unexpected combinations, insertions of extracts from well-known works, or momentary silences.


As he explained ahead of the last suite of pieces, Benabdeljalil's aim for the concert had been to start with the sensual - songs about romance, reproach and love - and move to the spiritual. This he achieved, via the short detour of an oud solo composed by band member Noureddine Ozzahr in homage to Berber oud master, Sidi Mohammed Rouicha, which evoked the dusty villages of the latter's native Middle Atlas. Benabdeljalil must have achieved some kind of spiritual connection - unlike other groups during this festival, he and the Zakharif Ensemble managed to tame the elements and play the rain away.

Bab Makina - looking gorgeous

At the end of the concert, all five vocalists appeared together on stage - all standing. If the number of smartphones and tablets recording the spectacle were anything to go by, the Fassi audience loved it. Befitting the genre, they sat and clapped enthusiastically but remaining seated, partying like it was 1499.



The last time we saw the superb all female Hadra Chefchaounia it was led by Lala Rhoum al-Bakkali, but there has been a change and now the group is headed by Khira Afazaz (pictured below). The Hadra Chefchaounia  has performed locally, nationally and internationally in Germany, the Netherlands,  Algeria,  France, Belgium, and Spain.


Lalla Khira learned the basics of the art hadra at the Music Institute of Chefchaouen:, where she studied music theory, violin and Andalusian music.

Although there are a number women’s Sufi ensembles in Morocco, especially in the North, it is still not common for them to play staged concerts. That tonight was a relatively rare event was probably the reason for the large turn out. For the first time during the Fes Festival the venue was packed to capacity and spilling over into the surrounding gardens.


The Hadra Chefchaounia have a distinctive sound that harnesses the melodies and rhythms from the Northern Moroccan Andalusian tradition of Chefchaouen. Using hand drums (gwal) and larger frame drums, they set up some interesting rhythms - at times complex and at others as simple as a heartbeat. It was an effortless performance that, with voices perfectly blended, delivered beautiful ethereal melodies in the Andalusian melodic mode.


The Buzz ~ Audience feedback with Fatima Matousse

Each day at the Fes Festival of World Sacred Music, we take time to speak with festival goers and find out what people attending the festival are talking about.

Tatgaana, Germany: This is my first time in Fez and at the Festival. I am captivated by the architecture; hearing and seeing the musicians play under a huge tree and the sounds of nature accompanying the music, is incredibly relaxing. Though it is true that the concerts are accessible just for the elite and the rich people; I also like that they organise music concerts for locals to enjoy. I think the organisers should improve the toilet facilities especially at Bab Makina.

Dieter Halbach, Germany: “The first thing to mention to the organisers is to be more professional preparing for the Festival. Had they, the African Spirit would not have been cancelled, sadly. I also think that several concerts have nothing to do with sacred music, for instance The Temptations. The sound system was not the best and not working during the latter concert. The best experiences I have had are the ones at Batha Museum and at the Dar Adiyel; these places have a beautiful spirit already - even without music. Seeing Fatouma paly with Roberto Fonseca, the collaboration between Indian and Malian musicians, is what brought me here.”

Jargen Pflaum, Germany: “The Batha Museum is amazing, I even had tears listening to some of the music there. I was closing my eyes and going into my inner self, it was a sort of meditation. Fatou and Roberto are the ones I loved the most as they deeply touched my heart.”

Beate Lerch, Germany: “There are many missing connections in the programs. For instance, during the presentation of the musicians, the moderator keeps speaking French and there is no translation for non-French people. The audience has many Europeans who speak English not French. People need to understand and get information about why the festival chose this musician and what he or she brings as a plus to the sacred music.”

Khadija Sassi, Fes: “The festival is exceptionally beautiful. We love Andalusian music.”

Hamza and Nadia, Fes: I am from Fez and this is my second time to come here. I loved that this year they had visual art on the walls. However, the food could have been less expensive inside Bab Makina - L’ami restaurant is doubling the prices of everything.”

Lamiae, Fes: “ I live in Fes and I come every year to the festival. I am looking forward to seeing Hussain Al Jassmi. We just love the festival because we meet new people all the time.”

Tomorrow at the Fes Festival
Weather: Sunny and 31 degrees Celsius . Nighttime low of 13
4.30 pm - Batha Museum - Faada Freddy (Senegal)
8.30 pm and 10.30 pm - Free concert at Bab Boujloud - Hamid El Hadri et Mazagan followed by Ahwach hayt tissa
9 pm - Bab Makina - Hussain Al Jassmi - (UAE)
11.pm - Sufi Night  at Dar Tazi - Tariqa Hamdouchiya (Hamadcha) with Abderrahim Amrani

The View from Fez is a Festival Media Partner and is covering all festival events and keeping visitors up to date with any change to the schedule via news stories and on Twitter : @theviewfromfez

See our previous Fes Festival 2015 reports
Fes Festival Opening Night
Fes Festival Day Two 
Fes Festival Day Three
Fes Festival Day Four
Fes Festival Day Five
Fes Festival Day Six


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The Fes Festival of World Sacred Music went out on a high with Abdoul Fatah Seck from Senegal and Hussain Al Jassmi from the United Arab Emirates giving great concerts but leaving it to the Hamadcha Sufi Brotherhood to close the Festival with a high octane night of wild magic

Faada Freddy - Batha Museum


After a fairly lacklustre Festival, with only a few bright spots, the arrival of Faada Freddy and his band onstage at the Batha Museum this afternoon was truly like the sun coming out. The audience seemed to breathe a universal sigh of relief, smiles returned to people’s faces and our soul’s were collectively uplifted by the phenomenal performance.

The heaviness had been physically was well as metaphorically removed from the stage, with the most minimal equipment ever seen - due to the complete lack of instruments. All of the backing sound was produced through body percussion and vocalising, a concept all the more incredible once we heard the fullness of the layers and harmonies first hand.


“I play different instruments, piano, drums, guitar, bass and I think this has served me well in understanding the range of different instruments and how to use them,” Faada Freddy said in an interview after the concert. “For example, for the drums, I found out how the human body can make the sound of a snare drum or percussion.“I adapted traditional instruments to an instrument that I call ‘organic’, that is to say the body.”

The concert began with his five backing singers entering the stage and the layering of sounds started: ch ch ch ch, whistle, chest tap, clap, a huh a huh a huh, oooooooh….Faada Freddy made his entrance in his signature dandy style - dress pants, white shirt, waistcoat, cummerbund and a silver topped walking cane topped off with a bowler hat. His adoption of such a traditional British look fits perfectly with his message of breaking down barriers and prejudices between us, whether on the basis of religion, colour or nationality.


“Those who fight against the mixing of cultures and mixing of colours will struggle against love,” he said.“And no one can fight against love - we are one family called humanity.”

Faada Freddy (aka Abdoul Fatah Seck) immediately connected with the audience, introducing himself after the first song and by the second he had the crowd in the palm of his hand. “Are you there?” he asked, “Are you ready to sing this evening?” and the one family called humanity replied with an emphatic “YES!”

"Are you ready to sing?"

His lyrics seemed written especially for that afternoon, as great waves of sunshine and happiness flowed over the crowd and we jubilantly clapped and sang along. There are some occasions when the music demands that I put down my pen and notebook and just go with it, and this was one of them.

Great waves of sunshine are comin' up your way,
Open up the flood gates and let your love light shine in
Every little moment you spend on a worry,
You spend on a fear you just a give it room to grow
So take back your fear and your worrying (and just)
Clear your pathway!


Faada Freddy’s music isn’t all just about good times however, with the upbeat and catchy tunes often disguising a more serious message in the lyrics. For example the very lively sounding song ‘We Sing in Time’ talks about drug addiction, dead end jobs and sending young men to fight pointless government wars “instead of teaching them to give and lead.” He still manages to weave in hope however and adopts the approach of delivering a hard message in a soft and palatable manner.

In time the trees die
And light will fade
But I hope for a new breath
A new life to take me away

His energy on stage provided new hope for those who witnessed one of the Festival’s standout performances, and his message was perfectly in tune with the ‘African Reflection’ theme.

“I think since day one Africa is supplying a lot of influence over the world through its music and it has great impact and I think one of the greatest resources Africa ever had is it’s culture,” Faada Freddy said later.


“Africa is beautiful, Africa is the future and people should know about that. They should know that Africa is going throughout some ordeals, going through a lot of problems because of corruption and stuff like that - I think once all of that is settled Africa is going to shine, it’s going to bloom to the world.

“But we have to keep on going, we cannot stop, because the people who are doing evil never stop, so how could we? We need to get people together. And I bring people together through my music, music belongs to everyone, music is not political, music is a cure, music heals and that’s what I know about it.


“And that’s why I keep singing and keep travelling everywhere and spreading the word like ‘hey open your eyes and see that there’s no corruption in music’ even though some people are trying to corrupt it, but music is still here, the real music is still here to relieve the pain and let people know that they belong to one great nation called humanity.”

Hussain Al Jassmi - Bab Makina

Tonight there was a festive air at Bab Makina. Fassis had turned out in their droves and their smartest outfits. The cafés and sandwich stands were doing a roaring trade. The announcements were only in Arabic - there was hardly a non-Moroccan here.


Arabic pop megastar, Hussain el Jassmi has over 180 million YouTube views to his name. Tonight at Bab el Makina he pulled hit after hit out of his turban, much to the excitement of the crowd. Tonight the fashionistas and smart young things of the Fassi Ville Nouvelle middle classes were out in force: heels were vertiginous, outfits were skimpy and there was hardly a headscarf in sight.

El Jassmi knows how to please a crowd. He told us he loved coming to Morocco and he is well-loved here for supporting the Moroccan underdog Arabic X Factor. The Moroccan - Mohammed Rifi - went on to win. Tonight, as well as playing his most popular tracks, he threw in a couple of old Moroccan favourites and covers of classics by Well-known artists like Egyptian Oum Kalthoum and Lebanese Fayrouz. He even addressed the audience in Darija (Moroccan Arabic - about as far removed from his Emirati dialect as you can get in the Arabic world).


The organisation of the concert, unfortunately, was not such a crowd pleaser. Despite their usual reputation for over-officiousness, the Festival security let a large number of the audience through to the front area (the most expensive seats). It was not clear whether these were a spill over from an area further back, or if the area had been over-sold. Either way, these people crowded the aisles and prevented those with seats from seeing the stage. Being too far forward for the plasma screens, the latter had to resort to standing on the furniture to see anything other than the view through the screens of 100s of smartphones. In the end, it was a case of "if you can't beat them" and those who had been calling "glssou" (sit down) were forced themselves to dance in the aisles.


Despite the issues with the sightline of the stage, El Jassmi could do no wrong. With his toothpaste commercial smile, twinkling good looks, humble demeanour and a string of hits (especially love songs) as long as a camel train, he had the majority female audience eating out of his hand from start to finish through a 2 hour set. Forget the fancy words of the Festival website about him continuing a long lineage of poets and storytellers - this was pop, pure and simple, and Fez loved it.

Sufi Nights ~ The Fez Hamadcha at Dar Tazi


There is one sure way of drawing a massive audience in Fez and that is to stage a concert by the Hamadcha Brotherhood.  The huge crowd at Dar Tazi tonight was at least double that of any previous night and they were blown away by the take-no-prisoners, shock and awe tactics of the Hamadcha Brotherhood.

Divine madness amidst the smoke of incense

There was none of the staid and polite entrance onto the stage and the sitting in neat lines that every other group tends to prefer. The chanting and drumming Hamadcha marched in behind a sea of candles, their ghaita players blasting down everything in their path.

One of the many ghaita players

Once in the actual venue they massed at the front of the stage while incense was lit - a lot of it.  In fact so much it was hard to see, let alone photograph anything! In the sea of fragrant smoke, chaos rained as some of the men performed the extraordinary hadra dance.  Think Mick Jagger on steroids. The local crowd, mouths open, soaked up the waves of energy produced by the wild boys of Sufidom.


Finally, they took to the stage and, after catching their breath, launched into the rest of their performance. Once again the Hamadcha blew away the conservatism and rigidity that can often take the wild magic out of a Sufi performance. And the crowd thanked them for it.

The relationship between the people of Fez and the Hamadcha is an interesting one. The groups in-your-face behaviour and trance inducing music is viewed by some with suspicion, yet, when a therapeutic lila (ceremony) is needed, they turn to the Hamadcha.

Abderrahim Amrani Marrakchi (in black vest)

One reason for the success of the group is down to two men. The leader, Abderrahim, and to Frederic Calmes, the musical director. Between them they have raised the profile of the group and fine tuned their musical abilities. They have also opened it up to women and to non-Moroccans.

Abderrahim Amrani Marrakchi is one of the great group leaders - moqaddem - of the Hamadcha. He is undoubtedly the most famous of moqaddem, appreciated for his erudition and his qualities as a musician.

Born in 1962 in Fez, he joined the brotherhood very young in a group then headed by his father. Trained as a musician, he became head of the tariqa (Brotherhood) in 1985. Anxious to preserve the heritage of Hamadcha in a rapidly modernising Morocco, he devotes a large part of his time to training younger members of the Brotherhood.

Musical director Frederic Calmes (centre)

Each year the Tariqa Hamadouchia, the Hamadcha of Fez, are invited to festivals around the world. At the beginning of 2015 they gave seven performances at the largest music festival in the Southern Hemisphere - the Woodford Festival (see story here). They followed this by being chosed as one of the opening night performances for Australia's most prestigious festival - The Sydney Festival. Ticket to this event were in such demand that the online sales sold out in a matter of minutes (see story here).

The Buzz ~ Audience feedback with Fatima Matousse

Each day at the Fes Festival of World Sacred Music, we take time to speak with festival goers and find out what people attending the festival are talking about.

Mariam, Fez: We are a sponsor of the festival and the security to Bab Makina did not allow us to get to our seats. They allowed some and others not, it is a kind of favouritism. They also change everytime the timing, sometimes they tell us, you will enter at four other times at seven, it was not professional at all. Plus there were more crowds than the place can hold.”

Mounia and Anne, France: “This is our first here, we particularly came to see Faada Freddy because we met him in the plane and he was really nice. I adore the place of Batha, it is very symbolic. I think the festival has been a great success. The public seems to be happy and satisfied. We liked that singers from all the Maghreb were singing together the during the Andalusia concert. However, since there are so many concerts in Morocco now, the organizers should consider not overlapping with each other events.”

Dominique, France: “ I am French but I love Fez and I have settled here. I was part of the organizing committee for the first edition with Fouazi Skali. The best concerts ever are the ones organized in Batha, they are amazing and very touching.”

Hakima, Marrakesh: “The choice of music is great and especially at Batha Museum. The organization is not good. For example, it is shameful that the entrance is always crowded and often times the audience is not categorized based on whether they have tickets or not. The music concerts at Bab Makina are not obviously linked to the sacred music or to the edition theme.”

Samia, Fez: “This is my first time in Batha and this is my first to see this Faada as well. If they ever play again I would definitely go to see them, they were amazing.”

Niama, Fez: “This is my first time at the festival. I came just to see Hussain Al Jassmi as I love him as a singer. I was so happy to see him.”

Fatima El Wazzani, Fes: “It is my second time in the festival. I came to see many popular singers before. I was annoyed with the organization because I could not see anything. But, in general I was happy to be able to at least hear Al Jassmi.”

Chaimae Amrani & Ikram Mejbar, Fes: “ The music is amazing. I came to see Al Jassmi because he is so tender and adorable. However, I have heard that the tickets to his concert were sold at 2000 dh which is really bad. In addition that the crowds did not allow us to see anything, the security could have done something about it which they obviously did not. We were shouting and we could have made a huge problem. It is unbelievable that this is the 21st edition. The concert meant to start at 9.00 pm and it did not start until one hour and half later.”

Tomorrow: The View From Fez wrap up of the Festival and an interview with the Fes Festival Director General, Tajeddine Baddou.

The View from Fez is a Festival Media Partner and is covering all festival events and keeping visitors up to date with any change to the schedule via news stories and on Twitter : @theviewfromfez

See our previous Fes Festival 2015 reports
Fes Festival Opening Night
Fes Festival Day Two 
Fes Festival Day Three
Fes Festival Day Four
Fes Festival Day Five
Fes Festival Day Six
Fes Festival Day Seven
Fes Festival Day Eight



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Tajeddine Baddou is a man equipped to face the challenges ahead ~ Suzanna Clarke reports

A few days into the 21 Edition of Fes Festival, newly appointed director general of the Spirit of Fes Foundation, Tajeddine Baddou, is obviously weary, but is unfailingly courteous. There is real warmth in his handshake and the way he makes eye contact. It's easy to imagine him hobnobbing with politicians and diplomats in his previous postings as Moroccan Ambassador to the former Czechoslovakia, Canada, Austria and Italy.

He grants The View From Fez a few minutes for an interview in the garden of the Batha Museum.

"I only assumed the role four months ago," he explains, "so this year's Festival is an exploratory mission for me."

Mr Baddou is working with some of the same team who have been responsible for the Festival in the past few years, including artistic director Alain Weber. Taking over from founding director Faouzi Skali is a challenge, Mr Baddou says, but one he is looking forward to. He's had events organisation experience before - in 1999 he was in charge of the Year of Morocco, showcasing the country through more than 400 international events.

One of the biggest challenges, says Mr Baddour is that, "We have a lack of sites in Fez to stage concerts. When the weather is good, Bab Makina can have a real magic, with the magnificent walls and the birds flying overhead. But the acoustics are not good, and in wet weather it's not possible to cover it."

Both extremes were experienced this year, with a triumphant opening night, using spectacular projections on the crenelated walls of Bab Makina, contrasted by the wash-out that was to have been Tuesday's Spirit of Africa concert.

There simply isn't an alternative venue in Fez that will hold an audience of thousands. It's something, Mr Baddou says, that the team will be trying to address.

Another aspect that will be a focus is an increasing move towards using English during the Festival. "Because we have a lot of English visitors," he says. This year, for the first time, opening night introductions were given first in Moroccan Arabic and then in English, before French.

However the format of the morning forums, which aim to give an intellectual context to the Fes Festival, are less likely to alter. I put to Mr Baddou the criticism that the panels seem to be mainly composed of French, or European educated academics, and could be more diverse. And rather than a series of long lectures by each panelist, the format would be more engaging if it was more dynamic. "This year we are fortunate to have Ali Benmakhlouf organising the forums, and he is doing a wonderful job," says Mr Baddou. "To change the format, you would need an intellectual revolution. We have to deal with our heritage." However, he would like to see more youth involvement and points out that this year that some Moroccan university students attended. He hopes that the number will increase.

Originally from Meknes, Tajeddine Baddou graduated with a PhD in Sociology from the University of Rene Descartes in France. Then from 1971 to 1983 he was Head of the Department of Social Sciences at the National Institute of Statistics and Applied Economy in Rabat. "So I started as a teacher and researcher in demographics...then I became involved in politics," he says. In 1983 became the Director of Multilateral Cooperation at the Ministry of Cooperation, and the following year the Permanent Representative of the Arabo-African Union. "Then His Majesty the King asked me if I wanted to open the first Moroccan embassy in (the former) Czechoslovakia, and I did." He moved onto other embassies, his last posting being in Rome.

I ask him about another criticism which has been levelled at the Festival; that it is turning away from its spiritual roots and becoming more of a world music festival. "This is not a real issue," he says. "We have the name, the Fes Festival of World Sacred Music, but in reality all music is sacred. We do our utmost to be open to all kinds of music."


Today the team from The View From Fez report their personal reactions to the 21st Fes Festival of World Sacred Music

FESTIVAL WRAP

Lynn Sheppard ~ Reporter

As a Fes Festival first-timer, I found the 21st edition a great opportunity to see some acts I like, get to know some new artists and come to appreciate some new musical genres.

My favourite concerts were: Omar Sosa and friends, Julie Fowlis, Fatoumata Diawara and Roberto Fonseca and The Royal Art of the Kora with Ballaké Sissoko. These are all acts I have seen and enjoyed before in different contexts.

Of the acts which were new to me, I enjoyed Faada Freddy, Masks of the Moon and Ramadan Hassan and the Musicians of the Nile. I would have liked to have seen more of Benjamin Bouzaglou and Oumou Sangaré.

I can't honestly say that all of the above fall within the term "sacred" and I find it a pity that the festival organisers seem to feel the need to invite more 'popular' groups which don't always fall under the overall theme. I would like to see the organisers of the Fes Sacred Music Festival have more confidence to differentiate this festival from others which take place across Morocco each year. Fez is the spiritual and cultural capital of Morocco and draws on a long and rich heritage of sacred music which people are surely willing to travel and pay to see. Complemented by sacred music acts from across the world, this would make for an interesting programme with a clear identity. Personally, I feel the festival is becoming rather populist by featuring acts such as The Temptations (who weren't even the original Temptations).

Fatoumata Diawara - an audience favourite

I thought this year's theme was well-chosen and timely; it was expertly presented in the opening concert, which was spectacular. The featuring of Hassan el Wazzan's travels created a common thread through a large proportion of the festival, which worked well. Without exception, the acts which I saw from Burkina Faso, Senegal, Mali and Egypt were excellent. I would have liked the opportunity to learn more about the spiritual or sacred background to their music - the Forum would have been a good place to do this.

Overall, I thought the Forum programme made a decent attempt to open up a debate on Morocco's place within broader Africa from historical, philosophical, anthropological, literary, cultural, musical and current affairs perspectives, but it could have been better. My suggestions would be to ensure that the speakers are really able to speak directly to the topic (eg by insisting on the submission of a paper which could subsequently be published); to make the Forum more interactive (eg by having shorter presentations from the podium and more audience input), and to invite more practitioners to speak, rather than academic observers and researchers.

Musicians of the Nile

The venues in Fez are spectacular. It was so enjoyable to sit beside the verdant green gardens of the beautiful Batha Museum. However, this year proved that the city is ill-equipped to manage a wet weather contingency and this is something that should be seriously considered. Also, programming should reflect the audience the Festival seeks to reach - if it is anticipated people travel to Fez for the weekend, the weekend line-ups should be stronger. If it is the aim to attract more working Moroccans, weekends and evening concerts should reflect this.

The lighting at Bab Makina was "awesome"!

Although I understand the communication this year was an improvement on previous years, I would expect a more dynamic and professional effort from a 21-year old festival. Hardly anyone other than myself and The View From Fez was using the #fesfestival hashtag; the Festival twitter feed wasn't updated at all during the festival; several concerts (Sufi nights and free concerts and events) were not in the programme; important information was communicated at the last minute, and there were frequently discrepancies between the English and French versions of online and printed material.

Masks of the Moon - a festival favourite

In conclusion, I would heartily recommend the Fes Sacred Music Festival to friends, as an interesting world music festival easily reached from the UK. However, given the limited coverage of the festival in English language media, they might need a little convincing.

Fatima Matousse ~ Reporter

I have always wanted to attend the Fes Festival of World Scared Music as I am haunted by spiritual and Sufi music. In the past, as a student, I was not lucky enough to attend to attend the festival. This year is my first time and I am grateful to have been given access, due to working with The View From Fez, for the entire programme.

I have not attended the past editions so am not entitled to compare and give accurate criticism or appreciation but I can speak about my feelings about this edition.

I was disappointed and surprised that the whole African Spirit and Oumou Sangaré was cancelled. As it is the 21st edition, the festival should have been equipped for all kind of conditions and plan for any situation, particularly a rain event. I would have forgiven a beginner festival with two or four years of experience but never 21 years. Accordingly, the first impression I have had was not the best.

I attended the forums in the beautiful Batha Museum the day after the rain storm and after 10 min I discovered that the chairs were still wet. Covering chairs before rain should be a pretty basic requirement! People had to pay to get access to forum and the concerts (expect the non-spiritual pop music that was offered to locals). I was surprised that the festival was also making money out of glasses of tea, charging 10 dirham! I understand that a festival needs money to run but I think that when you pay for a concert, the audience should have been offered a glass of tea for free. For the record, a huge pot of tea would not even cost 10 dirhams.

Création Marassa with Omar Sosa

I believe what really charms people about the festival is not simply the programme but the place itself. The riads and palaces where the music takes place charm the people and constantly speak to their souls; like a lover whom you will follow everywhere and forgive their mistakes after few seconds. During some concerts, I was inspired and the negative energy inside me got washed out. I loved the Création Marassa with Omar Sosa, a lot in particular the dancer, who was exceptionally talented to the extent that he made wish to dance again after stopping years ago. I was surprised by the happiness and the enjoyment his band were spreading to the audience.

Diego El Cigala - disappointing

Fatoumata and Fonseca were fascinating, I was so happy to see the combination of the two using music to speak to each other while still engaging with the audience. They both have charisma and the voice of Fatou took back to my dream to live in Mali for a year or two. Diego El Cigala has a special character, and way of taking and walking. I thought of him as a snobbish. I am actually crazy about flamenco and Gitano music, but was disappointed with his performance.

I was disappointed that Amazigh music was barely present in the programme. Had it been people would have appreciated it and discovered how diverse and rich with cultures and music Morocco is.

Over all, despite the criticism, the festival has inspired me and there are always more touching moments than negative ones. due to the music, the city and the ghosts of the Fez! I have been haunted and I will not hesitate to attend the festival once again.

Vanessa Bonnin - Reporter and photographer

Curiosity was at an all time high about how the 21st edition of the Fes Festival of World Sacred Music was going to fare under new management, since the ousting last year of Festival founder and former Director Faouzi Skali. The new team had a lot to prove in order to justify their coup, and unfortunately they fell short of the mark in my opinion. This sentiment was echoed by the majority of festival-goers I spoke to throughout the week, where the dissatisfaction and serious (rather than the usual trifling) complaints expressed were far greater than ever before.

The theme ‘An African Reflection’ was promising, as in the past the Festival has focused on Andalusian links plus connections with the Arab world and it was definitely time to acknowledge that Fes and Morocco are part of the African continent. Looking south should have provided a rich and diverse array of wonderful musical opportunities to tap into, but out of numerous concerts and artists engaged in this year’s line-up, only a handful were from Africa.

Oumou Sangaré

Tiken Jah Fakoly

The schizophrenic array of musicians lacked coherence and failed to deliver on what could have been a fantastic opportunity to highlight the boundless talent on Morocco’s southern doorstep. Admittedly the cancellation and inability to reschedule the expected highlight of the Festival – the concert with Oumou Sangare and Tiken Jah Fakoly – left a gaping hole in the African contingent, but for many it was the death blow to the week.

Ballaké Sissoko

This is not to say that there weren’t wonderful performances. Following on from the stunning opening night spectacle, particular highlights were the collaboration between Ballaké Sissoko and Debashish Battacharya, Marassaa Premiere and the outstanding Faada Freddy, but they couldn’t resuscitate a festival marred by poor planning and incompetence – or was it deception? – with regards to The NOT Temptations (don’t get me started). It seems that without Faouzi Skali at the helm (who was churlishly not acknowledged as the founder in any of the Festival material) the Festival has become a boat without a rudder. Hopefully the new Director General will take charge and throw them a lifeline.

Sandy McCutcheon  ~ Editor, photographer and reporter


In some cultures a 21st birthday is considered cause for celebration. In the case of the Fes Festival it was not only a celebration but also a new beginning, with a new administration put in place since the departure of Faouzi Skali. It was understandable then, that critical attention was  paid to every aspect of the festival by those for whom the festival caters - the audience.

The African theme was very welcome and the opening night concert was described by many veteran festival goers as one of the best. As Artistic Director Alain Weber, told The View From Fez - "I was less constrained this year". It was undoubtably a great start to the festival.

While critical voices questioned aspect of the programming ("only around half the concerts were African") and rain disrupted some events, the major cause of concern was the lack of contingency plans for bad weather and rescheduling postponed performances. The fact that the full programme was not on the brochure or booklet meant that audience members were scrambling to find out what was on at the Sufi Nights or concerts at Boujloud. Unfortunately the information that was in the printed materials was sketchy and at times contained rather exaggerated claims about the performers. The View From Fez is in debt to the major research work done by Helen Ranger.

The issue of announcements in English was improved this year, particularly at the beginning of the festival. It was not sustained and the huge numbers of audience members for whom English is a first or second language were vocal in their calls for this to be rectified in the future. Happily, the new Director General has flagged that this will be the case.

Artistic Director Alain Weber

The handling of the Temptations Review fiasco - something that should not have been allowed to happen in the first place - by the administration, was astonishingly unprofessional. Hopefully lessons will be learned.

It was a festival of challenges for the technical crews, who under the circumstances did remarkably well coping with performer demands and inclement weather. Special tribute should be paid to Christophe Olivier and Gaël Boucault, for superb lighting as well as Caroline Bourgine and Lucianna Penna for the projection mapping at Bab Makina. Sound engineers, Chris Ekers and Erik Loots, once again showed why they are regarded as among the best in the world.

Lighting and sound was amazing - thanks Christophe Olivier and Chris Ekers

Sound engineer Erik Loots

Because of the drop in audience numbers the previous years experience of dangerously over crowded venues was, with only one notable exception, not such a major issue. However the concerns expressed by hundreds of visitors to the crowd handling at the Hussain Al Jassmi concert are valid and must be addressed. Selling or giving out more tickets than a venue holds is not only dangerous, it is wrong.

The final issue worth mentioning is that of communication during the festival. The View From Fez was inundated with text messages, emails and phone calls from visitors wanting up to date information of schedule changes, venue changes and postponements. The festival could easily remedy this with a constant flow of information via Twitter.

Finally, I would like to thank my team members at The View From Fez who worked outrageous hours to cover all the events. It was a job well done and much appreciated by both locals and festival visitors. We had great reviews by Lynn Sheppard, Fatima Matousse and Vanessa Bonnin. Suzanna Clarke's sub-editing and photography were superb as usual as was the photography of Vanessa Bonnin. Shukran. We look forward to welcoming you and our readers back for 2016!

See all our Fes Festival 2015 reviews
Fes Festival Opening Night
Fes Festival Day Two 
Fes Festival Day Three
Fes Festival Day Four
Fes Festival Day Five
Fes Festival Day Six
Fes Festival Day Seven
Fes Festival Day Eight
Fes Festival Day Nine



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