Rabat – After a successful inaugural edition, the second edition of the Marrakech International Storytelling Festival is set to take place in Morocco’s Red City, Marrakech, between February 12 and 19, bringing together 80 storytellers from all seven continents.
Organized under the theme of “ancestral voices,” the event will feature storytelling performances in an array of languages, including Arabic, Darija, Tamazight, German, Greek, Russian, Persian, English, and Estonian, among others.
The week-long free and open-access event “echoes a deep need to meet in person and the healing power of stories in the post pandemic world,” indicated the organizers in a press release.
The festival’s director Zouhair Khaznaoui indicated that the first edition “represented an important step in reclaiming the Jemaa el Fna square for storytelling.”
The first edition of the event took place in Marrakech’s Jemaa el Fna, one of the city’s main cultural spaces. The inaugural edition “reopened the Marrakech cultural scene after COVID,” added the statement.
Meanwhile, the festival’s president Mike Wood said that “Morocco currently has an unprecedented opportunity to build on the international awareness generated by the Atlas Lions at the World Cup.”
He highlighted that the festival’s organizers are honored to “deliver a world-class” event that would contribute to further building Morocco’s legacy.
In an interview with Morocco World News last year, English storyteller and Artistic Director John Row showed great enthusiasm about the fast-approaching event, saying that the festival “raises the profile of storytelling in Marrakech on a global scale.”
“We will attract more tourists to the festival, and a lot more audience coming from outside Marrakech,” he noted.
Explaining the festival’s theme “Ancestral Voices,” Row indicated that the event pays tribute to renowned storytellers that have passed away, including Marrakech’s master storyteller Haj Ahmed.
The artistic director added, “If it weren’t for Haj Ahmed’s work, I don’t think storytelling in Marrakech would be nearly at the state of [how] it is now.”
The organizers of the festival have also expressed satisfaction with the participation of the Institute Francais.
The contributors from France will include Brian Bouillon Baker, who will present his biography of his mother Josephine Baker, “a legendary symbol of peace and international harmony with close links to the Kingdom of Morocco,” the press release added.
The statement announced that the second storytelling festival in Marrakech has retained the support of the riad festival as well as other partners, including Royal Air maroc, Groupe Accor, Nobu Hotel Marrakech, among others.
