Festivals

The many festivals of Morocco can be an added bonus to your trip or even the reason for visiting Morocco. Participating in traditional celebrations is an excellent way to experience local customs and culture.
The most notable annual festivals are detailed below. As many events depend on harvests and other natural phenomena, the dates given are intended as a guide only. Please contact us for further details.

 Fez Festival of World Sacred Music 2024

Artists from around the world flock to Morocco's spiritual capital during the annual Fez Festival of World Sacred Music. The event features performances in a variety of styles, including local Sufi chants, Pakistani qawwali incantations, Egyptian madhi odes, flamenco-style Christian saeta, ancient gwalior chants from northern India, whirling dervishes, and more, and brings together internationally renowned artists from the Morocco, France, Spain, South Africa, Turkey, Iran, Armenia, Egypt, Israel, Senegal, Poland, U.S., Greece and India. The spread of the gypsy-inspired style is such that musicians from France to Rajasthan can find common ground – and they certainly do over the course of this event, with collaborative performances culminating the program.


Essaouira Gnaoua and World Music Festival 2024

 The Essaouira Gnaoua and World Music Festival celebrates the mysterious music of the Gnaouas. Best known for their tasseled hats (which spin wildly as the musicians rock, entranced by their own music), Gnaoua is the music of the descendants of slaves who were brought to Morocco from "black Africa." Since 1998, the festival has been held in Essaouira, a picturesque port painted in blue and white that is the ideal resort that most travelers dream of when they think of North Africa: laid-back and yet vibrant, atmospheric, and relaxing. The town's status as an independent travelers' favorite makes it the perfect venue for a festival devoted to the feats of the Gnaouas. Originating through a cross-pollination of African magic and Islamic rituals, the mesmerizing rhythms of drums, guenbri (a form of lute) and hand-held garagab (metal castanets) lead performers into a trance-like state. In this extraordinary melting pot of music, artists appearing at the festival include the best musicians of the genre as well as players of jazz, pop, rock, and contemporary music.


Marrakech Folklore Festival 2024

The bustling city of Marrakech manages to cram in even more popular sights and sounds than it boasts already during the Marrakech Popular Arts Festival. During this annual festival, the Djemaa el-Fna square and surrounding locations become the al-fresco venues for a wide variety of traditional folk performances from throughout Morocco. The week-long extravaganza is set against the spectacular backdrop of the 16th century El Badi palace, whose courtyards are packed with enthusiastic performers and spectators. From the Berber musicians and dancers of the High Atlas to the Andalus-inspired musicians of the North, from the trance-inducing music of the Southern Gnaouas to the art of the belly dancer, every element of Moroccan culture combines to create a vibrant impression for visitors and locals alike.



Rose Festival 2024: May 14 to 27 El-Kelaâ M'Gouna

 An oasis in the Dadès Valley is responsible for the area's alternative name: the Valley of the Roses. El-Kelaâ M'Gouna hosts a vast distilling plant producing scented rose water so popular in the nation's cooking and perfumery. In the spring, the whole area is stunningly awash with pink Persian roses. Although El-Kelaâ smells divine all year round, the best time to visit is in late May when the rose farmers from the surrounding hills gather to celebrate the year's harvest. With ten tons of petals required to produce a few liters of precious oil, the harvest is understandably a labor of love, and the culminating festivities are all the livelier for it. A souk springs up along El-Kelaâ's main street, with plenty of music and dancing as rose petals rain down.



Imilchil Marriage Festival 2024

Morocco's very own Romeo and Juliet story is the inspiration for this tribal marriage festival in which up to 40 couples tie the knot on one day in Imilchil in the Middle-High Atlas Mountains. The festival is also an excuse for the surrounding Berber tribes to get together and dance, give impromptu musical performances and enjoy shopping, as a massive market springs up in the town, selling everything from Gillette razors and batteries to exquisite tribal kilims and carpets.
The legend goes that a man and a woman from two local tribes fell in love but were forbidden to marry by their families. They cried themselves to death, creating the two neighboring lakes of Issly (his) and Tisslit (hers) near Imilchil, which are just a 20-minute walk apart. So stricken were their families, they established a day – on the anniversary of the lovers' death – on which members of the two tribes could marry each other. The Imilchil Marriage Festival was born. According to protocol, women are made up by their families in traditional dress, their single status identifiable by their pointed head apparel. Potential husbands then browse the goods on offer. If the prospective groom is successful, his bride-to-be will say the immortal words: "You have captured my liver" and the match will be settled. A multitude of festivities accompanies this mass blind date, making it well worth seeing, whether or not you plan to surrender your liver to a potential suitor.



Cherry Festival 2024 Sefrou

 A picturesque Berber village near Fez, Sefrou lies on the rising slopes of the Middle Atlas, the ideal ground for the thousands of cherry trees that lend the town its fruity renown. Sefrou's Cherry Festival celebrates the harvest with music, dance, and the mandatory colorful souk (market). It takes place in an ancient walled town, one of the oldest in the area, pre-dating even Fez's 8th-century structures. There are numerous sporting competitions, a torchlight procession, a fairground, and finally the crowning of a cherry “queen” with a parade by her admiring followers.

Wax Lantern Procession 2024: April 22 Salé

The former pirate town of Salé returns to its roots as it celebrates a 16th-century holy man in the annual Wax Lantern Procession, the Mawkib Esh Shomouaa festival of lights. Although Salé is now essentially a suburb of the capital Rabat, it was in its day an important port with the requisite bad reputation; in fact, Daniel Defoe stages Robinson Crusoe's arrival as a captive through the town's main gate. The event honors Sidi Abdallah Ben Hassoun, a patron saint of travelers. His shrine (Zaouia) is visited each year on the eve of Mouloud by a procession of sailors dressed in pirate regalia and bearing massive wax lanterns hoisted on poles. The procession is said to date back to the Barbary period when Corsairs carried wax lanterns in procession to implore his protection before a long voyage. Although the interior of the Zaouia (like the majority of Muslim holy places in Morocco) is forbidden to non-Muslims, the procession still can be viewed from a number of vantage points around the town.



Camel Festival 2024: July Goulimime

The people of Goulimine hold an annual Camel Festival on top of their weekly Saturday Camel Fair. While once evoking images of Lawrence of Arabia, today the event is more of a tourist attraction than an actual market, but fascinating all the same. Situated at the edge of the Western Sahara, Goulimime is now less of a border town, due mainly to the decline of the camel as a mode of transport. In an era when the 4X4 truck is a faster option (and, unlike the camel, doesn't growl or spit constantly), the traditional art of camel trading is now fading away. The festival offers the opportunity to witness the ancient dance ritual known as the Guedra, which is associated with Goulimine. The dance is performed by a woman to the beat of a drum made of a kitchen pot (guedra) and the chanting and clapping of onlookers. The dance often induces a hypnotic state and is carried out to serve as a blessing or to submit oneself to God.



Date Festival 2024: October Erfoud

Sugary dates play an important role in the Moroccan culture, and the annual Date Feast in Erfoud demonstrates exactly how highly they are regarded. Their sweetness makes them an ideal token of good luck, which is why they are a traditional gift at important ceremonies and an offering to friends or strangers. Erfoud is the center of the date-producing area boasting more than one million date palms and is therefore the center of festivities after the October harvest. Traditional processions, music, and folk dance form the bulk of the events, with plenty of opportunity to sample traditional Moroccan cuisine, including salads and tagine (a rich stew) local-style, namely with an ample scattering of fresh dates.


Almond Tree Blossom Festival 2024: February Tafraoute

After the red expanses of desert, the small town of Tafraoute, near Agadir, makes for refreshing viewing in the early spring. Officially the almond capital of Morocco, the area is as famous for its produce as for the spectacle provided by the almond trees in full blossom amid the ochre red walls of the village between the pink cliffs of the Anti-Atlas mountains. This ephemeral sight of natural beauty gives otherwise peaceful Tafraoute a party atmosphere, as a colorful souk springs up, complete with dancers, musicians and storytellers.