A few years ago I read a book called "A House is Fez" and it in this Australian journalist talks about a beautiful festival in Fez every year held outdoors in the castles and riad gardens of Fez. At the time I had started to learn about Sufism which I stumbled across after being asked to dance at a DVD launch called Dances of Ecstacy in Sydney. I loved the whirling dervishes and trance dance of the Moroccan Sufi´s and then decided that I had to get there. A girlfriend and I had spoken about Spain and Morocco for an adventure, but she got pregnant and that never eventuated. So nearly 3/4 years later I made the decision that my round the world trip would definately have to include the World Sacred Music festival and in 2010 here I am!
Running from the 4-15 June in 2010 a season pass sets you back approx 240 Euro per person - yes ouch but that gives you A reserve seats to all day and evening shows at the various venues across town. This year the big draw card was meant to be Ben Harper but on the Saturday night, we were greeted at the door with a typed note supposedly from Ben himself saying that he had a "skateboard accident" and was devastated that he couldnt make the festival. My partner pointed out that it was nthe program never actually confirmed Ben in the first place. As it turns out the replacement group for Ben Harper were in my opinion the highlight of the festival and the best show we saw.
Through the agent who booked our riad we paid an additional $30 and she purchased and collected our tickets for us. We arrived to an evelope at the riad with two booklets of vouchers looking like a cheque book. So for each show we take a voucher and opening night we head up the street to the main venue Bab Makina - a beautiful old open air castle I guess you could call it. The streets were barracaded and a crowd of locals gathered across the street - we later discovered the princess was at the opening night so everyone wanted to catch a glimpse.
The security guards are at the venues everyday and night and I commented that they dressed in black suits and ties and very so professional. They were the face of the festival for me, always helpful and happy. Mind you the security at Bab Makina that scanned my bag, failed to see my pocket knife on the night of the princess and every night there after.
I think that those security screens throughout Morocco are a joke as I even got my pocket knife on a plane between Fez and Casablanca and I constantly set off those security doorways with my beeps and no one ever checks!
Back to the festival... so the red carpet was rolled out and seats in the various sections. The opening night was the Royal Cambodian Ballet, which those of you who know I fell in love with Cambodia last year and in particular the dancing. But I have to say that it was a bad decision on the festival organisers part to but such a thing on opening night. It was just to mellow and anti-climax for an opening night w hich should really have gone off with a bang and perhaps used the African band Bamakao Connection instead. It was beautiful for sure, but I felt this would have been better later in the week and something more upbeat even perhaps a song per festival performer on opening night so that people can see whose show they would like to go to that week.
The poor programming continued throughout the festival with singers scheduled in the evenings for the large venue and fantastic groups who go the crowd rocking at the afternoon events. It regularly seemed that they needed to switch the two around and have the relaxing artists in the afternoon garden instead. Additionally we found that some of the performers at the free concerts for the locals were better than ours - that was a little frustrating and again that was purely because they placed the chilled artists in the evening rather than in the afternoon.
Although the festival originally attracted French tourists and locals, there is definately a large contingent of english speaking only guests attending now. So it was very disappointing each night to turn up and at the door they continued to only provide information about that evenings performance in French. Furthermore there was no English introductions to the groups in the afternoons or an information desk at the festival which seemed insane - we hunted the whole festival for a program in English and only finally found it on the last day of the festival - typical!
So that was my rant - the festival needs just a few tweaks to be perfect and if they advertised in places like Australia, USA and England and even Asia their numbers would dramatically increase as it is a fantastic initiative!
As I mentioned the Bamako Connection on the Saturday night were one of my favourites... there was clearly the crowd there that was originally for Ben Harper so once they started with the African beats people got up in their seats and started dancing. Then they managed to get down to the front and the crowds swelled as everyone wanted to dance. This was a true festival scene!
Other highlights of the festival for me included.....
Burundi drummers... of course I love these guys and was so excited to see them on the program. My refugee family I work with in Australia is from Burundi, so I had seen them before and knew how exciting and loud their performance could be.
Rajab Sulieman Trio from Tanzania did an afternoon performance in the Batha Museum gardens which was amazing! Rajab is a very talented Qanoun player which is like a harp that lies on your lap and its so Middle Eastern with its tunes. The music they (qanun, tabla, ciello and singer)played is reminiscent from Zanzibar and it truly was a beautiful afternoon to hear such an amazing group in such beautiful surroundings.
The Sufi´s from Tanzania were perfect with their choreography and beautiful voices. They were different to other Sufi´s that I had seen, these were more like gospel singers. I was really happy with a photo I managed to take of a couple of them one evening. I´ll post it on the side bar of this blog.
Ustad Gholam Hassain and ensemble from India made me cry. The singers voice and the humblness of the group as they spoke in English to the crowd saying how excited they were to be there and for once it was genuine. They had two Indian tablas and an electric Sitar on stage - the Sitar player was brilliant with his compositions and fusion of traditional indian and electric guitar style. They also had two dancers with the classical Indian Kathak dance style bells on their ankles. The tabla player would play a rythm and they would play it back - it truly was brilliant.
The Luxor Musicians from the Nile of Egypt were fantastic with their Mizmar, nei and tabla. They played the saidi tunes of Egypt and even had the famous whirling sufis of Egypt. I really struggled to not get up and dance with these guys.
Dhafer Youssef Quartet from Tunisia ROCKED! There was an oud player, fantastic piano and drummer - the tunes they belted out were brilliant and another real favourite due to not only their tunes but their crowd pleasing personalities too.
The inflated festival ticket prices allow the organisers to put on free concerts for the locals to attend - in theory I like this as I think its a beautiful idea but I think there needs to be a credit to the tourists as we do spend alot of money to be there in the first place and a simple banner or thank you from the organisers to let the locals know that this is the situation is something that would be nice I think. Perhaps they do this but we are not aware, it just did not seem that the locals knew that the entertainment was a result of this.
One thing that I started to love doing during the festival was to walk over to the free concert that the locals attended - mainly for the people watching, the atmosphere and the great "sandwich nazi". Picture lots of stall in the open air with many of their carts built on an old pram. Our favourite was the panini guy who had the most skilled ability to peel a potatoe and egg in two seconds. The most delicious sandwhich with egg, creme cheese, olives, tomatoes and then some other yummies all for 60c a sandwhich!!!!!
Oh and the OJ guy - he had premade stuff in a bottle but as I was worried he mixed tap water I asked him to squeeze some fresh juice. 8cents a glass!!!!!!
The buzz in the air of the festival, the fantastic venues, amazing artists and yummy food make this a must do festival even if for only once in your life!
Next blog.... Day trip to Meknes, Voubilis and Moulay Idriss
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