July festivals: Morocco’s popular arts festival

There’s always something of a festival feel to Marrakesh in Morocco, with its bustling, noisy markets and snake charmers. And, during the popular arts festival, the carnival feeling intensifies, with a multitude of performers taking to the streets; using them as open air performance spaces.

Whether it’s fire-swallowers, fortune tellers, or the hypnotic sounds of Gnaouas drummers, you’ll find plenty to marvel at here. But it’s not all carnival acts, every evening there’s a fantasia – a choreographed military display on Arabian horses, which takes place in a field near the ruined Palais el- Badi, reputed to be have been in its time one of the most beautiful buildings in the world and given the name ‘The Incomparable’.

There’s also the opportunity to invest in some of the beautiful, world famous Moroccan pottery.