http://www.marrakechfestival.com (french website)

A foretaste of the 43rd edition, a popular festival immersed in a city in celebration of 14 to 19 July 2008.

The festival covers its 43rd edition in an original format, powerful, innovative and popular. In the continuity of the 42nd edition, the next edition will preserve the popular arts in all their authenticity, will celebrate a heritage alive of inestimable value, for the sake of sharing with an audience in search of the events When popular, authentic and quality.

To announce the festival, a grand procession to the sound of traditional instruments, will help to attract and unite the local people and guests of the town red.

Stages are installed in the city, including historical places of the town red, as the Badi Palace and Dar Si-said

The official opening of the Festival will be held at the Palais Badi July 15, 2008. A magnificent spectacle, in a single framework, will stage the popular arts in a new theme. A choice to present the groups of artists and musicians in an appropriate framework. The Badi Palace, with its architecture and its prestigious public places, is the living theatre where the event takes place and where 200 000 spectators are expected each night.

A Bab Ighli from 17 to 19 July 2008, a large stage merger new generation artists and popular Moroccan renowned host more than 40 000 spectators each night.

To animate the entire city, the 2008 edition has scheduled 6 scenes in the districts of Daoudiate, Garden of the Harti, Sidi Youssef Ben Ali, M’hamid, Hey Bab El Massira and Lakhmis. These districts are colorful feast by troops traditional daily.

One of the ambitions of the festival, to revive and continue the traditions and artistic expression of Moroccan women. The 43rd edition brings honour Moroccan women with 2 evenings Dar Si Said gente devoted to women, which will unite artists and audiences purely feminine.

The festival also aims to promote culture alive through original events taking place at the Theatre Royal, such as contests (ghiyata, hanna, gnawa…) and exhibitions.

The normal dress code on the street in Morocco is to cover legs, chest and arms for both men and women and although this is much more relaxed than it used to be. It is fine to wear shorts/swimwear in certain places and staff will advise you of the protocol at each place, specially if you planning to travel outside Marrakech.

I have seen some tourists wearing next to nothing, showing complete disregard for local customs. However, Moroccans are very civilised and relaxed. They will not bother you but they may stare. If you like to be stared you can wear what you like, but if you like more anonymity just wear what you would normally wear, taking with you a light pashmima to cover your shoulders/arms & even your head when you feel it would be appropriate.

Advice sent by Jim Parker

Organised by the internationally renowned pianist Youra Nymoff & the music director of the Nice Philharmonic Orchestra Marco Guidarini – A festival of classical music with the participation of international orchestras.

Rencontres Musicales de Marrakech cross paths between western music and non-western and open a window for young performers and Moroccan talents to popularize and promote the great classical music in Morocco.

Maison Mnabha: Situated in the Kasbah area of old Marrakech, Maison Mnabha offers 4 bedrooms, some with a private roof terrace, overlooking the medina and the distant Atlas Mountains. The rooms are beautifully decorated in 17th century tile work. A private chef can offer you a candlelit dinner on the roof terrace.

Riad Kniza: Situated in the heart of Marrakech’s Medina just a few minutes walk from the Djemma el Fna (the main square), this small, romantic, beautifully furnished traditional Riad has 7 rooms, two lounges, a courtyard and several patios.

La Maison Arabe: La Maison Arabe is a luxury Riad in the heart of the Marrakech Medina. Famous for its restaurant it also offers 17 rooms overlooking two courtyards and a beautiful hammam (traditional Moroccan sauna).

After spending as much time as you can bear in the steam room you proceed to a cooler room for a scrub with a coarse glove and black soap before being manipulated by a masseur or masseuse. Then it’s time for some quiet contemplation in the “salle de repos” (rest room). Be advised that at hammams males and females are strictly segregated and in female sections women usually go naked, but you can bring along a swimming costume if you prefer not to. Nudity in the male world is taboo, so men keep their trunks on! All Moroccan towns have hammams as do many hotels and auberges.

The best Hammam in Marrakech are:

Hamman Hilton (A gorgeous marble Turkish bath)
Targa Rd
Admission Dh30

Hammam el-Bacha (Traditional hammam in the Medina)
Rue Fatima Zohra
Admission & massage Dh30

Maison Mnabha: Situated in the Kasbah area of old Marrakech, Maison Mnabha offers 4 bedrooms, some with a private roof terrace, overlooking the medina and the distant Atlas Mountains. The rooms are beautifully decorated in 17th century tile work. A private chef can offer you a candlelit dinner on the roof terrace.

Riad Kniza: Situated in the heart of Marrakech’s Medina just a few minutes walk from the Djemma el Fna (the main square), this small, romantic, beautifully furnished traditional Riad has 7 rooms, two lounges, a courtyard and several patios.

La Maison Arabe: La Maison Arabe is a luxury Riad in the heart of the Marrakech Medina. Famous for its restaurant it also offers 17 rooms overlooking two courtyards and a beautiful hammam (traditional Moroccan sauna).

Morocco’s middle classes opt in to western consumerism

And it is still a very attractive city, albeit a modern one, with ATM machines, McDonalds and other western chain stores springing up almost daily.

Rabat’s inhabitants are as attractive and sophisticated as the city itself, and they know it.

Anyone foolish enough to be outside in the midday sun will find themselves jostling for a space on the shady side of the street with Rabat’s well-to-do classes, as they stroll self-assuredly to work.

Poor cousin

It is not unusual in Rabat to see a Moroccan man wearing an American baseball cap and shorts, while his wife accompanies him wearing a traditional gown or “djellaba”, with the hood up.

Morocco is rife with contradictions.

Moroccan women are still seen in their traditional attire in modern Rabat

In Rabat the smell of expensive aftershave is carried on the warm breeze, but when the wind blows in Sale, you may even catch a whiff of hashish.

Sale, separated from Rabat only by a narrow river, is the poor cousin of the thriving capital, and much more indicative of the state of many towns in Morocco.

It is from suburbs like Sale, with high unemployment and low development, that Casablanca’s suicide bombers came from.

Fundamentalism

They were dissatisfied young men, with nothing to do, watching as Morocco’s middle classes opt in to western consumerism.

Places like this are a breeding ground for Muslim fundamentalism, which has taken root here over the last 30 years.

The Moroccan authorities are actively cracking down on anyone seen as too radical a follower of Islam.

And while an Islamic party did better in recent elections than ever before, the king did not appoint any of its members into his cabinet.

‘Westernised’

The official line is that fundamentalism is an imported phenomenon, brought over by hotheads from Saudi Arabia.

But many Moroccans I have spoken to say privately that they feel something is going wrong.

Moroccan authorities are cracking down on radical followers of Islam

“We have parroted the ways of the West, dressing like Westerners, worshipping money like Westerners, but without getting any of the development that goes with it,” one woman told me.

And many Moroccans identify with what they see as the suffering of their Palestinian brothers at the hands of Israel and America.

Morocco may be part of Africa – and sometimes uncomfortably close to Europe – but it is also part of the Arab story.

And now it would seem it is stuck between a rock and hard place.