A Call for Peace
From one of Islam’s Great Holy Cities
Musicians from all over our planet fly to Morocco’s ancient holy city of Fes.
From 2 to 10 June this year to take part in the festival renowned as a clarion call for peace from the Islamic world. 2006 marks the 12th year that the Fes Festival of World Sacred Music has brought together great performers to showcase the finest music from the world’s spiritual traditions. They do this in an atmosphere of respect and mutual appreciation. This is the arena where Muslims, Jews, Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, shamans etc: celebrate what they have in common – rather than squabbling over what divides them. The theme of the 2006 festival is Harmonies.
Headlining the Fes Festival this year is the maestro form Mali – Salif Keita. A world music mega-star, he will be on stage for the finale on 10 June in the magnificent setting of the Bab Makina palace courtyard. Other highlights include the hugely popular, passionate and powerful Pakistani singer Abida Parveen. She performs at the Bab Makina on 3 June. In the more intimate ambiance of the gardens of the Batha Museum, the acclaimed Spanish viola da gamba player Jordi Savall and the singer Monserrat Figueras present a programme of Christian, Sephardic and Arab-Andalusian music on 6 June. Also at the Batha, festival audiences will enjoy performances by the Tibetan diva Yungchen Lhamo (5 June) and Black Voices – a five-woman acapella group from England (8 June). The festival opens on Saturday 2 June with the legendary Franco-American master of the Baroque William Christie conducting Les Arts Florissants.
The Fes Festival was founded by the Sufi scholar and humanitarian activist Faouzi Skali and the Festival’s President Mohammed Kabbaj. Mr Kabbaj is a former advisor to King Mohammed of Morocco and is now the Mayor of Casablanca. Both men were appalled by the implications of the first Gulf War and decided that a positive initiative was needed. There was an emblematic first performance in 1994 featuring a Palestinian singer and a Jewish guitarist.
Today the Fes Festival occupies a firm position on the moral high ground. Its celebration of spiritual values, pluralism and cultural diversity is increasingly recognised as an axis of hope in our troubled times.
In October and November 2006 the second Spirit of Fes roadshow will tour more than 20 cities across the United States. The first Spirit of Fes tour took place in 2004 – presenting the Fes experience to American audiences with the magic of sacred music and the message of the Fes Encounters dialogue.
The Fes Festival is enormously good fun. During a week of concentrated musical excellence, visitors can take in three or four performances a day. The Batha Museum in the afternoon, Bab Makina in the evening, free concerts in the vast Bab Boujloud square and ecstatic late night Sufi gatherings in the Dar Tazi gardens. If there is time and energy left over, social life buzzes in the city’s hotels and restaurants and the Fes medina is a World Heritage Site. Shoppers can get happily and safely lost in the world’s largest medieval souk.
For complete programme details and further information go to www.fesfestival.com
Or contact Mary Finnigan T 0117 330 6350 M 07808 988405
E mary.finnigan@gmail.com