The Fes Festival is widely acclaimed as one of the world’s great musical events. Now in its 12 th year, it brings together performers from every corner of our planet for a week of artistic excellence in Morocco ’s ancient holy city. It represents the spiritual heart of Islam – peaceful, pluralistic, generous and cheerful. It honours all the world’s spiritual traditions and it dissolves musical boundaries. This year’s programme includes French classical, Sufi music from India and Pakistan , a capella spirituals from England , Japanese drumming, a Mass from Argentina and a finale from Mali ’s maestro Salif Keita. Paying performances take place under a giant Barbary oak in the gardens of the Batha Museum and in the Arabian Nights splendour of the Bab Makina palace courtyard. Free concerts are staged in the vast Bab Boujloud Square and late at night with Sufi brotherhood musicians in the Dar Tazi Gardens . A rich diversity of musical expression linked by a common theme – the harmony that we know is possible. The Fes Festival of World Sacred Music brings this into vivid focus.

In the year 2000 the festival extended its horizons to include the Fes Encounters -- a forum where academics, politicians, religious leaders and social activists come together to share their views and experience under the rubric Giving Soul to Globalisation. In 2006 the forum asks the questions: How can culture and spirituality become levers that change our attitude towards the environment? Can we find a way to harmonise our points of view so that we can work together to resolve conflicts – or even better prevent them? The Fes Encounters dialogue aims to translate words into action and theory into practice. Among the partners and sponsors of the forum are The World Bank, The European Commission and The Aga Khan Trust for Culture.