Peter Culshaw reporting in the Guardian:
The North African nation hosts three festivals that dwarf Glastonbury – and which are designed to send out a message about the country's tolerance
Mehdi Nassouli Photograph: Rachid Bourhim/PR
You may not have noticed, but Morocco has become one of the leading destinations for music festivals in the world. There’s the Fes festival, a leading world music festival, and the snappily named Jazzablanca in Casablanca. But the biggest ones are the funkier Gnaoua festival in Essaouira on the coast, the massive pop Festival Mawazine in Rabat – which has starred the likes of Rihanna and Stevie Wonder – and Timitar in Agadir. Each attracts crowds of up to 500,000 people (that’s three times the size of Glastonbury). All of them, too, are not just music festivals – they have specific social and political agendas as well.More here