Fez World Sacred Music Festival 4-15 June 2010

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

Arriving in Fez, Morrocco June 2010

Catching a train between Marrakesh and Fez was a simple enough procedure but just painful as we had no AC for 7 hours meaning that the tiny opening from the window above was barely enough to survive comfortably. I like to think that it was so hot in our cabin from the other 4 passengers in our cabin who talked the entire trip and took all the oxygen :)

One thing we noticed and later discussed is also something that I noticed in India. Travelling by train in these countries complete strangers have long winded conversations for hours on end together and we both agree that generally this just doesn't happen in Australia. We really are quiet conservative. I know many of you may not agree, but you really need to see how it unfolds... strangers take a seat next to each other, greet then start in heated debates and talk for hours like they are long lost friends. They share food even if the portion for themselves is little, they help each other with bags. Its something that I think on planes and trains in Australia we just don't see so much of anymore - if you have a chatterbox next to you people tend to read or plug in their earphones and pretend there is no one around them.

Anyway that was our 7 hours to Fez. Arriving in Fez we were greeted to a very modern and extremely clean train station with all the traditional Moroccan architecture and artisan work from the wood work in the ceilings, the zelij mosaic tile work on the poles and marble floors - I was really impressed. For the first time this trip we were met as had been arranged by a driver at the station. To book this part of the trip we decided to enlist the help of Helen Ranger who is an agent for many of the Riads in Fez and whom I found thanks to the Suzanna Clarke book "A house in Fez". Again we find ourselves piling into a tank Mercedes for the 10 minute drive to the Riad in an area called Batha. Straight away I am impressed by the scenery in the streets - generally clean, traffic lights that people actually follow, road rules, police cars - I know it all sounds normal but remember the places that I have been travelling people rarely obey such advanced technology.

I am told Baksheesh (bribes) are still a common daily occurrence throughout Morocco and as a result we see people in the front of the cars wearing seat belts to avoid 600 Dirham fines or having to slip 100 dirham into their license as they hand it over to the police.

One unique scene throughout Fez is the water fountains - they are obsessed and it seems every neighbourhood has one and it often taps into a natural spring. Surprisingly you don't find people bringing buckets down to take the water as you might in other parts of Africa!

The car pulls up in a cudlesac and some young teenagers come to see if they can make a few dirhams taking our bags to our riad but our driver shoo´s them away. Again we find ourselves towing our luggage down yet another windy lane way to get to the riad. We arrive at a large old wooden door and are greeted by Abdul who is our humble maitre de for the 8 nights we will stay. He´s very quiet spoken and I find it very strange that as an Arab man this is so and that he appears to be either very shy or lack confidence - its really strange in such a culture, but he is the perfect host and nothing is ever too much trouble for him.

Inside the riad is absolutely amazing. It has been restored over a few years by a French woman who up until the purchase thought she could renovate the riad from abroad. She said that after 6 months of seeing no progress, she realised that she would have to move here to see the renovation complete and now she lives here full time. There is a photo album on the coffee table which show photos of the riad before and during the renovation and I have to say I am a junkie for such things! The whole riad is 3 or 4 floors with the home built as a square and a centre open air area for relaxing and where they serve breakfast and dinner. The clever thing about this riad is that they have an automatic roof that they use to close the open air area in the event of rain and yes I didn't believe it possible but it did rain whilst we were there!

Breakfast each morning is served whatever time we arrive - so we take the opportunity to finally get some decent sleep in a huge comfy bed with the shutter windows closed so its pitch black still at 10.30am :) We arrive downstairs and our host Abdul madly begins to scatter around serving us coffee, juice, dates, Moroccan sponge bread, something that looks like a crumpet cross pancake, yogurt and my favourite that I devour for the two of us - pastries mmmmmm.

So Fez has the little red "petite taxi" and unlike Marrakesh where we find ourselves tire of bargaining with the extreme rates they charge for a few KM´s, we are pleasantly surprised when we hope in and say our destinations (me in my most convincing French accent) and the meter kicks off. No trip was ever more than 10 dirham!!! Most of the time the trips are 6 or 7 dirham and we don't even bother to wait for change - seriously we are talking 60c!

The city of Fez has the main wall still standing around the city and its really a case of just throwing yourself in rather than reading a book as the book confused the hell out of me. One thing we did learn from Lonely Planet though is that the government in Fez have realised that tourists tend to get lost maneuvering around the medina, so they have placed coloured signs around the windy medina lanes that you can follow according to whether you would would like to go through the artisan area, copper smiths, museums etc. Sounds easy enough but a couple of times we did a massive circle following the signs so we resorted to hiring a guide for our last day there to make sure we didn't miss anything. All we really missed were a few great painting shops which we ended up cleaning one out nearly of his stock!

The painting shop was quiet interesting. I was convinced we should play good and bad cop with the bargaining for one particular beautiful person, but my partner in crime decided to tell me out loud in front of the store owner -"yes i definitely want this one" not something you want the owner to hear when you are about to bargain - kind of like buying a house you play it cool like you really don't care. Too funny! In the end this young guy showed us he was a prick and wouldn't budge even slightly and on principal as he didn't want to play ball we went to another guy a few doors up and started with a painting each and walked out with 9 paintings in total!! ummm we need a house first perhaps?!

Eating became an sometimes chore in Fez - after Marrakesh and being held hostage to eat dessert which turned out to be my birthday cake! One thing we were realising we needed to start saying was that we didn't want dessert a) we weren't really into the crunchy wafer pancakes and b)we were over the set menu 5 courses!! We had dinner the first night at our riad which was lovely but again too much food - wine was great though! Then we resorted to Lonely Planet for restaurant recommendations.

We really struggled to follow the map to the restaurants so settled on a little place with versace looking tablecloths on the first day - service for food was at least 40 min but definitely the best preserved lemon chicken tajine in Fez. When we went to pay the bill we learnt that Morocco was playing football (soccer for the aussies out there) hence why inside was packed with men and no staff gave a crap about their starving customers. Dinner was delicious though and only around $10-15 for the two of us. The area was ate is in the middle of the Medina with rows of little eateries and their chairs facing the passing foot traffic - reminding me of that in Paris minus the gorgeous men and women of course.

Lonely Planet mentioned a place called Clock Cafe and we decided to check it out as it was highly recommended. We were at the point of giving up when suddenly I got my second wind and saw a street sign and worked it out in a second as I spun around and saw a sign on the inside lane way directing us to the cafe. Its an old riad converted into a multi level cafe with rooms and balcony seating overlooking the downstairs kitchen area. Its owned by an English guy but managed by an Aussie and we both agree the staff were all fantastic and appeared to be like a happy family. One thing I really like about this place is the fact that they offer bellydance, cooking, calligraphy and live music nights. We actually did a cooking class there which was brilliant and I would highly recommend the head chef there who teaches you -Souad. She was a wealth of information and so friendly. We learnt to cook traditional chicken and preserved lemon tajine, eggplant salad, harrira soup and a desert kind of like the baklava nut rolls we make in Greece.

The cooking lesson took us into the fresh food market and Souad cheekily took me to the chicken butcher - he has a room filled with white chickens which he picks up and plonks one on his ancient scales so you pay by the kilo. With a serious face she looked at me and said now it is traditional that you must kill the chicken. I wasn't sure if she was serious but when he handed me the chicken to hold by the wings I realised that she was serious! At first I thought well I have to do this sooner or later don't I, then as it squirmed in my hands I thought this is not going to happen to asked if we could wait till my partner is back as he´d love to do it! She started laughing and the butcher too - obviously I realised this is a common prank she plays with all her clients!

Not only did we buy produce for the meals we were to cook that day, but she also walked through explaining about the traditions of the Moroccan people, the local natural beauty guy who sells the black soap for the hammam and henna for the hair and skin of the women, the water guy who every spring uses some ancient technology to evaporate the juices for rosewater, oregano etc which they offer as cool drinks for guests, to wash babies and as digestive aids. There was even a camel butcher who one night I looked to my right and there was a camel head just hanging from a hook! Strangely enough he looked peaceful with his eye and lips closed and I couldn't get over the long eyelashes! We both tried the camel burgers at Clock Cafe and they were ok, nothing to rave about but heaps better than crocodile or kangaroo.

There was even a lady in the market and her job all day is to make filo pastry and all the locals and restaurants come to place their order with her for the day!

Some customs and beliefs she told us about included:
*In Islam you can have as many wives as long as you can treat them all fairly, which she said is impossible so its really a catch 22 and not really happening anymore.
*children in Morocco are fed separately from their parents until they are 8 years, its considered very rude if your children eat at the table with guests before this age as generally they have not learnt the proper manners and etiquette.
*they don't have bellydancers at their weddings instead they dance themselves and have musicians.
*weddings now days go for 2 days - day 1 for the henna patterns that are applied to the women's hands and feet and day 2 for the actual wedding.
*women keep their surnames in Morocco (as does most of Europe now - come on Australia!!)
*all names for children must have a meaning or you are told to choose from a government list of names.

We were lucky enough one afternoon to see the start of a wedding celebration. I did a stake out for a good hour determined to get good photos and perhaps even an invite to their wedding since that particular day I had dressed like the women in their traditional dress. but alas my dress did not help my cause and we only got to see the start of the celebration as the family were very protective as too many tourists rocked up for photos so they headed inside instead of parading them around the street. The women is carried in an epitaph chair and the man rides a white horse that I will mention got the crap kicked out of it for playing up before the wedding started.

One sight that never ceased to amaze me in not just Fez but all over Morocco is cats. Even as I sat waiting for my flight to check in at Casablanca international airport, a cat strolled on past me inside the airport! Every sight you visit, every restaurant you eat at...cats! And I must say that they are fat healthy cats as the locals and tourists feed them well. There´s a line up of cats out the front of the butcher stalls (I say stalls as all meat is exposed in the open air) every morning they sit patiently waiting for a feed!

Next blog the World Sacred Music Festival in Fez 2010.........