Music is at the heart of cultural life in Marrakech, as it is throughout the whole of Morocco. In this city, as in the country, distinctions between public and private performance are practically non-existent, as many of the best performers are often to be found playing to all that want to listen at
Jemaa-
el-
Fna.
More formal cultural events take the form of festivals - as there is very little by way of dedicated theater, opera or dance venues, although there are some Arabic performances in small theaters for those who wish to seek them out. Performances combining music,
dance and theater are extremely popular during the
National Festival of Popular Arts (see
Special Events). Many posters around Marrakech advertise forthcoming comedy events, although performances are in French or Arabic only.
Music: Anyone with even a passing interest in music should head straight for Jemaa-el-Fna. The best time to go for music is in the mid- to late evening, as the square gradually empties and the dedicated street musicians take over, playing their repetitive, rhythmic melodies on a mixture of mandolins, guitars, flutes, drums and makeshift violins. The most enchanting of the styles on offer is
Gnawa trance music, best exemplified by the internationally renowned band
Nass Marrakech, which formed in the city. This music, a blend of African styles, combines repetitive rhythms and choric voices to create a trance-like awareness of the present moment in the listener.
Marrakech is almost certainly the best place to enjoy the fusion of Moroccan music, as the city has been the host to Andalucian, Arab, Berber and African influences for up to 10 centuries. For North African music lovers, one particularly good time to visit Marrakech is in June or early July, during the two weeks of the
National Festival of Popular Arts (see
Special Events).
Film: Marrakech and the surrounding countryside has long drawn many leading film-makers in search of stunning set locations. Alfred Hitchcock shot
The Man Who Knew Too Much here in the 1950s and, more recently, Martin Scorsese used the city to evoke the biblical Holy Land in
The Last Temptation of Christ (1988). Gillies MacKinnon faithfully reproduced the Marrakech of Esther Freud’s novel
Hideous Kinky in his 1999 film adaptation of the book. As a city for watching movies, there are two venues in Guéliz worth bearing in mind: the
Colisee (tel: (044) 448 893) on boulevard Mohammed Zerktouni, which shows mainly American blockbusters, and the
Institut Français, on route de la Targa, Djebel Guéliz (tel: (044) 446 930), which shows mainly French-language films. The annual
Marrakech International Film Festival (website:
www.festivalmarrakech.wanadoo.ma) takes place in November attracting stars from the Arab world and Hollywood alike.
Literary Notes: Some of the most focused writing on Marrakech in the last century has been by foreign writers.
The Voices of Marrakech (1978) by the Nobel-prize-winning author, Elias Canetti, is perhaps the best - a superb memoir of the city during the last years of French rule in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Esther Freud’s
Hideous Kinky (1992), made into a film starring Kate Winslet, is the definitive fictional evocation of the impact of Marrakech on idealistic Westerners. Gavin Maxwell’s
Lords of the Atlas (1966) tells the compelling story of the Glaoui family who ruled from Kasbah Telouet in the High Atlas Mountains.
A Street in Marrakech (1988) by Elizabeth Warnock Fernea illustrates the trials of life inside the Marrakech medina through the eyes of an American couple who live in the city.
Among books by modern Moroccan writers, there are few specifically on Marrakech but one Moroccan novelist worth reading is El-Khouri Idriss, whose novels include
Al-
Bidayat (
Beginnings) (1980),
Al-
’ayyam wa Allayali (
Days and Nights) (1982) and
Madinat Atturab (
City of Dirt) (1988). These books convey strongly the feel of everyday Moroccan life in coffee shops and other urban settings and show a firm commitment to representing the voices of marginalised members of society.
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Word Travels is a comprehensive travel guide covering hundreds of cities and holiday resorts in more than 125 countries.
Related Morocco Content
The Columbus World Travel Guide has been published for 26 years and is sold in over 90 countries worldwide.
Word Travels is a comprehensive travel guide covering hundreds of cities and holiday resorts in more than 125 countries.
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