Marrakech Popular Arts Festival
Marrakech Popular Arts Festival
The lively and energetic streets of Marrakech, Morocco, become even livelier during the annual Marrakech Popular Arts Festival. This multi-day festival features artists, dancers, singers, theatre troupes, fortune tellers and snake charmers from all over Morocco as well as Europe, Asia and beyond. Held annually in July, the Arts Festival is one of the most celebrated and popular events in Morocco.
Festival performances take place in venues scattered throughout Marrakech. Most of the major events take place around the grounds of El Badi Palace. The grounds of El Badi provide a historic backdrop for the festival and visitors will be offered a glimpse of its former grandeur. Red walls and an expansive courtyard are all that remains from the once great palace that took over 25 years to construct. Sadly Moulay Ismaï destroyed the palace in the late 1600s to decorate his own palace in Meknes and most of what is left of El Badi is in ruins.
Many of the events also take place in Marrakech’s main square, Place Djemaa el Fna. The square is home to a dizzying array of cafes, food stalls, shops and vendors, and it can take days to get your bearings and see it all. The Djemaa el Fna is also home to a cast of entertainers and you can expect to see storytellers, magicians and snake charmers on any given day, not just during the festival.
Music and dance are vital parts of the Moroccan life and you will surely enjoy the unique mix of modern entertainment and traditional arts characteristic of the festival. The festival brings together all parts of Morocco so you will see performances from ancient folk dancers and traditional Berber musicians as well as belly dancers, fusion bands and pop musicians. You won’t want to miss the “Fantasia” held nightly just outside the city walls. This traditional choreographed horse performance involves groups of charging horseman dressed in traditional clothing.
Visiting Marrakech during the Popular Arts Festival will enhance your experience by giving you the opportunity to visit with the locals and see Morocco at its cultural finest. If you need a break from the festivities, seek solace in the peaceful Majorelle Gardens or relax under an orchard of palms and olive trees in the Menara Gardens before returning to this vibrant celebration of Moroccan culture.
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The Marrakech Popular Arts Festival
The annual Marrakech Popular Arts Festival starts this weekend, it's celebrating its 45th year. For a whole week, this already lively city will be filled with folk singers, dancers, fortune-tellers, acting troupes, snake charmers, fire-swallowers and more, from all over Morocco. Since 2000 the festival has also attracted many artists and entertainers from Europe and Asia. The main events take place in the ruins of the 16 century Badi Palace and the Djemma el-Fna (main town square). Not to be missed, outside the city walls at night, is the Fantasia. A horse-riding spectacle that includes hundreds of charging horsemen (and women) wearing traditional clothing.
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Marrakesh Popular Arts Festival: a guide to Morocco’s festival of street performers
Marrakesh Popular Arts Festival: a guide to Morocco’s festival of street performers
Level of participation: 2 – sip a mint tea and take in the Maghrebi culture
With snake-charmers and marketers cawing ‘lovely jubbly’ at passing English tourists on Djemaa el-Fna square, bustling Marrakesh is rather like a year-round festival. The colour and pace intensify during the Popular Arts Festival, when performers from across the North African nation use the city as an al fresco venue.
Sauntering across Djemaa el-Fna in search of the dreamy orange juice stands, you come across even more fire-swallowers, fortune-tellers and folk singers than usual. Look out for Berber musicians and dancers from the High Atlas, Andalucían-style songsters from the Spanish-influenced north, and the hypnotic Gnaouas drummers from the south.
The main gathering point for performers from acting troupes to acrobats is Palais el-Badi. Built by Ahmed al-Mansour between 1578 and 1602, the now-ruined palace was reputed to be one of the most beautiful in the world and well deserved its name, the Incomparable. Every evening, a fantasia (choreographed military display on Arabian horses) takes place in a field near the palace.
Local attractions: a pavilion in Palais el-Badi houses a 12th-century treasure, the beautifully restored minbar (pulpit) from the Koutoubia that inspired so many Arab and Andalucían poets.
morocco culture,moroccan food,morocco food,moroccan cuisine,morocco beaches,moroccan meal,beaches in morocco,moroccan culture,hercules cave,hercules cave morocco
Level of participation: 2 – sip a mint tea and take in the Maghrebi culture
With snake-charmers and marketers cawing ‘lovely jubbly’ at passing English tourists on Djemaa el-Fna square, bustling Marrakesh is rather like a year-round festival. The colour and pace intensify during the Popular Arts Festival, when performers from across the North African nation use the city as an al fresco venue.
Sauntering across Djemaa el-Fna in search of the dreamy orange juice stands, you come across even more fire-swallowers, fortune-tellers and folk singers than usual. Look out for Berber musicians and dancers from the High Atlas, Andalucían-style songsters from the Spanish-influenced north, and the hypnotic Gnaouas drummers from the south.
The main gathering point for performers from acting troupes to acrobats is Palais el-Badi. Built by Ahmed al-Mansour between 1578 and 1602, the now-ruined palace was reputed to be one of the most beautiful in the world and well deserved its name, the Incomparable. Every evening, a fantasia (choreographed military display on Arabian horses) takes place in a field near the palace.
Local attractions: a pavilion in Palais el-Badi houses a 12th-century treasure, the beautifully restored minbar (pulpit) from the Koutoubia that inspired so many Arab and Andalucían poets.
morocco culture,moroccan food,morocco food,moroccan cuisine,morocco beaches,moroccan meal,beaches in morocco,moroccan culture,hercules cave,hercules cave morocco
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