PICTURE: ISTOCK
DESTINATIONS NORTH AFRICA
A traditional
Tunisian dancer
40 | Travel Weekly | July 3 2009
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they can spend all day snacking
at special tastings, attending
classes, watching demonstrations,
discovering local ingredients, and
most importantly, feasting their fi ll
on tagines, kebabs, harira and all
sorts of meze.
MARRAKESH INTERNATIONAL
FILM FESTIVAL – DECEMBER 4-12
Snake-charmers, henna-tattoo
artists and stall owners alike
vacate the bustling Djemaa el-Fna,
Marrakesh’s main square, for this
annual fi lm festival. Movies from all
over the world are screened in this
huge open-air cinema, and visitors
may even spot a celluloid legend
– previous visitors include Susan
Sarandon, Martin Scorsese and
David Lynch.
TUNISIA
INTERNATIONAL FESTIVALS,
EL DJEM, DOUGGA, HAMMAMET,
BIZERTE – JULY-AUGUST
The summer months see a rash of
music and cultural festivals all over
Tunisia, which make the most of
the country’s historic sights. The
huge Roman amphitheatre at El
Djem resounds with operatic arias.
At Gougga, the most impressively
preserved Roman town in North
Africa, visitors can view classical
drama, and sunny seaside Hammamet
has a cultural centre off ering ballet,
opera, circus acts, jazz, popular Arabic
singers and French pop stars. The
French-infl uenced city of Bizerte in
the north hosts a festival that
showcases its indigenous talents,
from music to food to local crafts.
TUNIS MEDINA FESTIVAL –
AUGUST/SEPTEMBER
Visitors to Tunis during the month
of Ramadan get the chance to see
an entirely diff erent side of the city’s
exquisite medina from the typical
tourist stalls. They can go inside the
Tunis Theatre, or into beautifully
decorated palaces and gardens,
and listen to classical Arabic or
BEST OF THE REST
MOROCCO
λ Young girls dance in costume
at the Imchil Marriage Festival
in the Atlas Mountains from
August 25-27.
λ In October, Fez hosts the Horse
Festival, where equestrians show
off their skills.
λ There are jazz festivals in Tangiers
and Rabat in June, and in Fez
in November.
TUNISIA
λ Bird lovers may enjoy the June
Falconry Festival in El Haouaria,
in the country’s green Cap
Bon region.
λ The northern town of Tabarka
world music, see fi lms by Arab and
French directors, or see strange
spectacles such as medieval jugglers
or whirling dervishes.
FESTIVAL OF THE SAHARA, DOUZ
– NOVEMBER
Celebrating the traditions of the
Berber desert people, this is the place
to come to see horse races and camel
fi ghts, sand hockey and belly dancing,
and to hear the music and poetry
of the desert. Douz is the largest of
Tunisia’s desert oases, but palm trees
still outnumber people, so clients will
get a true feel of the Sahara.
EGYPT
MOULID OF ABU EL-HAGGAG –
AUGUST 8-9 2009
Visitors can enhance the iconic
ancient sights of Luxor by visiting
during this two-day celebration
of the city’s patron sheikh, when
there are horse races, music dance
and traditional tahtib stick fi ghting,
before a parade of fl oats through
the streets.
SPHINX FESTIVAL , GIZA PYRAMIDS,
DECEMBER 1-5 2009
The theme of this year’s Egyptology
and cultural arts festival is the
elements. Water, fi re, earth and air
will be celebrated with traditional
dance, music and cosmology, and
hardcore pharaoh-philes can attend
workshops and seminars. The less
focused can enjoy the entertainment
in the shadow of the lone surviving
ancient wonder of the world.
INTERNATIONAL YOGA FESTIVAL,
GIZA PYRAMIDS, JUNE 2010
The Pyramids at Giza are just the
starting point for this celebration of
everything yogic. After three days
doing downward dogs in Egypt,
participants move on to Jordan’s
Rift Valley and then to Petra. Even
the most infl exible client can take
comfort in the stupendous views,
meditate, or learn about astrology
or karma. TW
hosts a jazz and world music
festival in July, and the Coralis
Diving Festival in September.
EGYPT
λ August sees the International
Film Festival in Alexandria.
λ At sunrise on a certain day in
February and October each
year, crowds gather at the temple
at Abu Simbel to watch shafts
of light creeping across the
stone to illuminate statues
of the gods.
λ There will be a lot of dromedaries
in Sharm el-Sheikh in May, with
17 diff erent tribes convening for
the South Sinai Camel Festival .
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