The second edition of the Marrakech International Storytelling Festival.
Ancestral Voices: 12 to 19 February 2023
More than eighty storytellers from every continent will converge on Marrakech for the second edition of the festival with the theme “Ancestral Voices” echoing a deep need to meet in person, and the healing power of story in the post pandemic World. The festival, like the World Storytelling Cafe, is curated by master storyteller John Row.
We are proud to be a FREE festival with open access to storytelling across the Red City in public spaces, museums and monuments as well as cafes restaurants and riads. More information will be published here in due course.
NOW is the time to book your flight and secure accommodation in one of our partner riads, all of whom will be supporting the festival by hosting a storyteller
Created during the unprecedented period of the COVID 19 pandemic we have hosted more than two hundred tellers and poets from every continent in an extravaganza approaching a thousand hours of performance. Our project is hosted in Marrakech, the magical Red City with a tradition of storytelling as old as the nearby Atlas Mountains. We are delighted that the next steps in this adventure lead to the Marrakech International Storytelling Festival from 12 to 19 February 2023 with performances in a number of venues including cafes, museums and historic riads. More than forty of the worlds best kown storytellers and poets will tell in languages including English, Darija and Amazigh. There will also be workshops, educational outreach, socialising and opportunities for all to learn, grow and tell. Fix these dates in your diary and start planning now to join what promises to be an unforgettable event.
Accommodation Partners
Marrakech is a mediaeval walled city, the accommodation that is unique to this part of the world are its famous riads, atmospheric houses built around private courtyard gardens that typically have around five or six bedrooms. These intimate spaces offer a very personal brand of hospitality and a perfect setting for storytelling.
The wonderful festival partner Riads above are just as excited about the festival as our storytellers, together our aim is get the medina buzzing with stories and contribute to the restart of tourism after the pandemic.
Our partner Riads have supported us by each donating a room for a teller, you can support them by BOOKING DIRECT and staying with them to immerse yourself in the Festival experience.
If you run a Marrakech Riad and you would like to explore partnering with the festival please contact us worldstorytellingcafe@gmail.com . This would involve providing a complimentary room on a B&B basis. You and all your guests will have access to festival events. Naturally the storyteller based with you will be pleased to tell in your riad whether that’s a cosy private telling for residents or it might be appropriate to open up to wider attendees and include on the festival calendar.
Request
We will be asking all visitors to the festival, storytellers and listeners alike, to bring with them any spare clothes that they have. We will coordinate collection and Marrakech based storyteller Zouhair Kasnaoui will lead distribution in the City but also the surrounding villages.
The Soup Kitchen at the Henna Café will continue but will now produce between 10-50 meals per day as need has reduced but is still there. We believe in giving a fishing rod rather than a fish but sometimes a fish is what’s really needed to tide someone over. We will continue to provide free education to the local community.
Documentation filming sponsored by 