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Morocco World
17-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Morocco World
Fez Festival of World Sacred Music Celebrates Africa's Spiritual and Cultural Renaissance
Fez – The 28th edition of the Fes Festival of World Sacred Music opened tonight night at the historic Bab Makina, launching nine days of performances that honor Africa's enduring spiritual legacy and contemporary creative energy. This year's theme, Renaissances, reflects the continent's ancient traditions and their eclectic evolution in modern times. For centuries, Fez has stood as Morocco's spiritual and intellectual capital – a crossroads of Sufi mysticism, Islamic scholarship, and Andalusian musical heritage. Its ancient medina, home to the world's oldest university, Al Quaraouiyine, has long been a sanctuary for sacred arts, where music serves as prayer and bridge between cultures. The Fez Festival of World Sacred Music draws from this legacy to transform the city into a global stage where traditions converge. The festival's artistic director noted Africa's central role in this year's programming. 'We are celebrating Africa as a living civilization,' said Abderrafia Zouitene, President of the Fondation Esprit de Fès. 'From Morocco to Mayotte, from ancestral rituals to contemporary fusions, these performances show how tradition breathes new life into our global cultural landscape.' Friday's opening ceremony set the tone with a spectacular production that put together North African and sub-Saharan influences. Bridging eras through sacred music Over the coming days, audiences will experience everything from the devotional Sufi chants of Senegal's Mouride brotherhood to the earth-shaking drum ceremonies of Burundi's master percussionists. Each evening at Jnan Sbil garden, different spiritual musical traditions will take place, including Morocco's Aissawa and Hamadcha brotherhoods and Mali's legendary Master Musicians of Jajouka. Several artists, if not all, consider the festival as a connecting bridge between generations and genres. Malian musician Adama Sidibé, perhaps the last living master of the sokou, a traditional one-stringed instrument, will perform alongside French jazz violinist Clément Janinet in a groundbreaking collaboration. Haitian-Canadian saxophonist Jowee Omicil will present his unique fusion of Afrobeat, jazz, and Caribbean spiritual traditions, while Ghanaian harp virtuoso John Kwame Osei Korankye demonstrates how ancient instruments can speak to contemporary audiences. The festival culminates on May 24 with 'The Great Night of Griots,' featuring Mali's Ballaké Sissoko Orkestra alongside artists from across West Africa. These hereditary musicians and storytellers will perform epic narratives that have been passed down through centuries to connect modern audiences to the grandeur of the Manding Empire and Ashanti Kingdom. South-South unity Beyond the formal concerts, the streets surrounding Bab Boujloud will pulse with free performances, including the mesmerizing Zaouli mask dances from Ivory Coast and spectacular stilt-walking displays. The festival transforms all of Fez into a living celebration of sacred artistry and prove that these traditions remain as vital today as when they first emerged centuries ago. The Fez Festival of World Sacred Music continues through May 24, with performances daily at multiple venues throughout the city. The festival's celebration of Africa's cultural renaissance aligns with Morocco's longstanding commitment to South-South cooperation, a cornerstone of King Mohammed VI's foreign policy vision. By featuring artists from across the continent and its diasporas – from Senegal and Mali to Burundi and Mayotte – the festival creates a dynamic platform for cultural exchange that strengthens ties between African countries. This cultural diplomacy mirrors Morocco's broader efforts in economic and developmental cooperation across the Global South, particularly in Africa where the kingdom has invested significantly in infrastructure projects, educational exchanges, and interfaith dialogue. This African-focused edition reinforces the festival's and Morocco's roots in the continent while advancing a vision of cooperation that transcends geographical and linguistic boundaries. Tags: Fez sacred music festivalsacred musicSufi music
Morocco World
13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Morocco World
Fez Sacred Music Festival Opens with a Spellbinding Tribute to Renewal, Sacred Beauty
Rabat – The 28th edition of the Fez Festival of Sacred Music opens this Friday with an ambitious creation that promises to leave a lasting impression. This year's theme is all about 'Renaissances, From Nature to the Sacred', and it conveys more than just the start of a globally acclaimed cultural event. A lyrical journey into what it means to be human, to evolve, and to reconnect with the sacred awaits those who will attend. This year's opening act brings together dozens of musicians, dancers, narrators, and visual artists from across Africa and beyond. At the heart of it all stands Fez's Bab Makina, the monumental gateway that has become a canvas for the festival's now signature projection mapping. As night falls, its ancient walls will light up with vivid visuals, wrapping audiences in a unique performance. What will bind all performances together is the idea of Renaissance in all its splendor and depth, and not just as a historical period or artistic style, but as a living force. Fez embodies that force. It once gave birth to Al Quaraouiyine, the oldest existing university, and for centuries shaped religious and intellectual life across Africa. Today, it continues to inspire, drawing a line from its multilayered legacy to the rebirths, spiritual, artistic, and cultural, that still define our age. The show draws from its depth and diversity: from the hypnotic rhythm of Burundi's drummers to the ritual dance of the Ivorian Leopards, from the poetic chants of Senegal's Mouride brotherhood to the sacred feminine voices of Mayotte's Deba tradition. Each performance speaks to a different expression of the sacred. Sometimes solemn, sometimes playful, always alive. The stage will also welcome voices from beyond the continent. Omani Sufi chants will echo alongside the mystical Sama dance of Meknes. Corsican mezzo-soprano Battista Acquaviva will breathe new life into Renaissance hymns. Malian actor and storyteller Habib Dembelé will guide audiences through the evening as narrator, grounding the spectacle in the power of spoken word. The result is a carefully crafted narrative, one that moves from elemental nature to spiritual awakening. This opening night stands as a continuation of that effort and as an invitation. Fez does not just host a festival; it opens a space where cultures meet, where memory breathes, and where the soul finds room to rise. The sacred music event will welcome the public on Friday, May 16. Doors open at 6:00 p.m., close at 7:15 p.m., and the show begins shortly after at 7:30 p.m. At its core, the Fez Festival of Sacred Music has long acted as a living platform for South-South dialogue, and the organizers plan for this year's edition to deepen that commitment. The inclusion of spiritual traditions from Mayotte, Oman, Ivory Coast, Senegal, and Mali is no mere happenstance. It shows a deliberate effort to foreground connections between southern societies whose sacred practices often intersect and echo across borders.
