The Fes Festival of World Sacred Music: Faiths Meeting in Song
In Morocco's ancient city of Fes, a festival founded in 1994 brings together Sufi singers, Christian choirs, Jewish cantors, Indian musicians and more. Its new edition begins this month.
Picture a warm evening in Fes, Morocco. Inside the vast courtyard of Bab Makina, beside the royal palace, thousands of people sit beneath ancient walls as darkness falls. On stage, a group of Sufi singers from Morocco begins a slow, hypnotic chant. Later the same night, a choir from Europe might sing medieval Christian hymns, or a master from India might play the sitar. In the gardens of the old city, smaller concerts continue. This is the Fes Festival of World Sacred Music, one of the most unusual music festivals in the world.
A festival for understanding
The festival was founded in 1994 by the Moroccan scholar and writer Faouzi Skali. Its aim was to use sacred and spiritual music to build bridges between cultures and faiths, at a time when the world seemed increasingly divided. The idea was simple but powerful: music from many religious traditions, performed side by side, could help people recognise what they share.
Over the years, the festival has hosted an extraordinary range of performers:
- Sufi brotherhoods from Morocco and around the Muslim world.
- Christian choirs and singers, from Gregorian chant to gospel.
- Jewish cantors and Sephardic musicians.
- Hindu and Buddhist musicians from India, Tibet and beyond.
- Musicians from Africa, Latin America and Asia whose music has spiritual roots.
- And, often, crossover projects bringing artists of different traditions together on stage.
The festival also hosts forums and discussions on spirituality, culture and global issues.
Why Fes?
Fes is one of the great historic cities of the Islamic world. Founded in the late 8th and early 9th centuries, it became a centre of learning, crafts and trade. Its old walled city, Fes el-Bali, is a maze of narrow streets, markets, mosques, schools and workshops, and is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. It is home to the University of al-Qarawiyyin, founded in the 9th century by a woman, Fatima al-Fihri, and often described as one of the oldest continuously operating educational institutions in the world.
Fes also has a long history of coexistence: for centuries, it was home to Muslims and a significant Jewish community, and it absorbed the culture of refugees from al-Andalus — Muslim and Jewish Spain — after the Christian reconquest. Andalusian classical music still has a special place in the city.
The venues
Concerts take place in some of the city's most beautiful spaces:
- Bab Makina — a huge courtyard next to the royal palace, used for the main evening concerts.
- The Batha Museum garden — a peaceful Andalusian-style garden where afternoon concerts are held in the shade of a great tree.
- Courtyards, palaces and squares across the medina, including free concerts open to the public.
Late at night, Sufi nights in historic houses and gardens invite audiences to experience the trance-like music of Morocco's Sufi brotherhoods.
When it happens
The festival is usually held in late spring or early summer, typically around late May and early June, over about a week. Each edition has a theme, linking music to ideas such as knowledge, nature or the heritage of particular cultures.
A Moroccan tradition of spiritual music
The festival celebrates traditions that are very much alive in Morocco itself, from the Sufi chants of the brotherhoods to the trance music of the Gnawa, whose story we told in our article on Gnawa music.
Why it matters
In a world often divided by religion, the Fes Festival of World Sacred Music offers a different picture: Muslims, Christians, Jews, Hindus and others singing their prayers in the same city, often on the same stage, to audiences of every faith. It has inspired similar festivals around the world. And it does so in Fes, a city whose own history shows that cultures can live, trade, learn and make music together.
