Sacred music fest enters its 7^th year In Morocco’s holy city of Fez

The logo of the 5th Annual World Sacred Music Festival held in 1999.

Lovers of sacred music from the world’s great faiths will gather in Fez, Morocco, on June 1 for the 7^th Annual World Sacred Music Festival. The 10-day event, which will unfold in Morocco’s holiest city, will feature music as diverse as Sufi, Andean, Sephardic, Zulu and Pakistani Ghazal chants, Renaissance and Baroque Christian spiritual music, and American gospel songs.

Venues for the music will range from evening concerts at Bab Makina, the palace reception court of a 14^th century king, to afternoon concerts at the Moorish palace of Dar Bat’ha. One event, a concert by the H’madcha Sufi drummers of Fez, will take place in the ruins of Volubilis, a city built by the Romans 2,300 years ago.

The festivals’ theme this year is “A Soul for Globalization,” referring to the increasing awareness among the world’s peoples that technology has shrunk the globe to almost neighborhood size. Traditions, music and cultures that once seemed terribly distant or exotic now seem increasingly near and comprehensible. The festival becomes a sharing of the music underlying sacred traditions that can unite people.

— Patrick Totty