World Sacred Music Festival
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The World Sacred Music Festival (Festival des Musiques Sacrées du Monde) brings together performers from every corner of our planet for a week of artistic show in Fes Morocco's ancient holy city. The festival intends to represent the spiritual heart of Islam – peaceful, pluralistic, generous and cheerful, honouring all the world's spiritual traditions and dissolving musical boundaries.
Thousands of visitors now converge on the city every year to experience a unique week-long celebration of sacred musical traditions from every corner of our planet.Famous performers like Ravi Shankar, Youssou N'Dour and Salif Keita are juxtaposed with more obscure musical genres such as Japanese Gagaku, Indonesian Gamelan and folk music from Central Asia. The 2007 festival promises to be a vintage year, with new Artistic Director Cherif Khaznadar bringing a fresh perspective to the programme. The festival was founded in 1994 by the Moroccan scholar and philanthropist Faouzi Skali. It includes a four-day Forum under the rubric "Giving Soul to Globalisation". Politicians, social activists, visionaries, academics and religious leaders come together in dialogue. The Forum is Sponsored by the World Bank. Fes is becoming an increasingly popular tourist destination and many non-Moroccans are now restoring traditional houses (riads and dars)as second homes in the Fes medina.
