Fez Festival of World Sacred Music: The Program of the 28th Edition Finally Revealed
The program for the 28th edition of the Fez Festival of World Sacred Music (FFMSM) has finally been published on the official website “fesfestival.com/2025.” This bold and rich lineup features 25 concerts, chants, poetry readings, and Sufi nights offering a journey into a universe where music transcends borders and unites cultures. “This edition promises an unforgettable experience with a diverse program blending mystical traditions, spirituality, and modernity,” said the organizers at the Esprit de Fès Foundation, initiator of the event.
Scheduled from May 16 to 24, 2025, under the theme «Renaissances», the 28th edition will celebrate culture, spirituality, and art. Following Spain in 2024, Italy will be the guest of honor this year. The festival will highlight the historical ties between Italy and Morocco, especially between Florence and Fez, sister cities since 1961. Several artists from both countries will express this special dimension of openness, harmony, and coexistence through their fusion performances and shows envisioning a better future. Over nine days, Fez will pulse to the rhythms of more than 200 artists from 15 countries, including Italy.
The opening ceremony on May 16, 2025, at Bab El Makina, will feature a specially commissioned show titled “From Nature to the Sacred.” This artistic fresco will evoke Fez’s pivotal role in nurturing religious consciousness across much of Africa, with its Quaraouiyine University historically serving as a model of scholarly life. This model inspired Arab thinkers such as Al-Kindi (9th century) and Al-Farabi (10th century). Centuries later, it was the Italian Renaissance that awakened Europe, blending Christian faith with revived classical philosophy. Florence, visionary in its era, mirrored Fez’s legacy from centuries prior. The performance will also celebrate the human capacity for constant renewala theme revisited throughout the festival’s program. Headliners include twin sisters Florencia Oz and Isidora O’Ryan, Clément Janinet and Adama Sidibé, Dahira Safinatoul Aaman, Ensemble Naghash, Miguel Poveda, Sahib Pashazade, Kamran Kerimov, Cindy Pooch, and many more.
A Unique Moment
The Bab Makina esplanade will also host an exceptional event on May 17a symbolic meeting between Florence and Fez with maestros Antonio Greco and Mohammed Briouel. Meditative, theatrical, and musical, the performance will take the form of a sequence of prayers conveying fulfillment and joy, featuring the Vespers of the Virgin Mary by Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi, performed by the Cremona Choir and Orchestra alongside Briouel’s ensemble.
That same day, May 17, audiences at Jnane Sbile Garden will be invited to experience the Sufi rituals of the Indian Ocean, including the Deba from Mayotte and the Al Areej Sufi ensemble from the Sultanate of Oman, along with the master drummers of Burundi. On Sunday, the Sufi ceremonies of Istanbul will pay tribute to the teachings of Jalal ad-Din Rumi, for whom everything revolves around the cosmos. Bab El Makina’s stage will be transformed for the Mevlevi ceremonies (Mevlevi Ayini), a sacred form of Turkish makam music. The Sema, a whirling ritual, expresses divine ecstasy.
A Spiritual Journey
To mark the 44th anniversary of Fez’s UNESCO World Heritage designation, the FFMSM will present a special event on May 22 at Bab El Makina.
It will bring together 44 virtuoso performers of Moroccan Andalusian music and 44 Moussamiines from various Moroccan zaouias, under the guidance of Sheikh Ali Rebbahi.
The result: a unique Sufi musical experience a spiritual journey through the 11 Noubas and all the Toubous of “Al Ala,” enriched by the “Mayazines” and “Al Adrajs,” creations of Moroccan zaouias that expanded the “Al Ala” repertoire. Accompanied by 20 Foukaras, the group will perform the Hadra, offering a deeply meaningful experience through the words of great Sufi masters such as Omar Ibn al-Farid, Abu al-Hassan al-Shushtari, and Mohammed al-Harrak.
Africa Spirit
From May 17 to 20, 2025, Bab Boujloud will once again resonate with the spirit of the festival. Through a scenography created by Jean-Paul Mehansio, under the title Africa Spirit, this segment will celebrate feminine beauty. In addition to traditional Zaouli dance featuring human-faced masks topped with animal figures the public will discover stilt performers whose movements evoke forest spirits. Finally, the festival will close its 28th edition with The Great Night of the Griots, a tribute stretching from the Ashanti kingdom to the Mandinka Empire. Led by Ballaké Sissoko’s Orkestra from Mali, the pentatonic melodies will revive a Mandinka musical heritage that has been passed down orally for centuries. “We are the bags of words, we are the memory of mankind,” proclaims the Mandinka epic.
From our permanent correspondent, Youness SAAD ALAMI
