Rose Festival Marrakech

Moroccans love to celebrate. Throughout the year, Morocco celebrates a number of festivals, blending the local customs and traditions sans orthodoxy resulting in a wave of hundreds of different festivals throughout the year. Although the orthodox Muslims do not support the veneration of saints, the religion generously accommodates many different “branches” with their individual schools of thought and these celebrations continue and thrive. One of the festivals is the Rose Festival, a yearly festival in El Kelaa M’Gouna that is usually held in early May.
The grandiose setting for this festival will dazzle anyone who comes to Kelaa of M’Gouna (Ourzazate Province) in Mid-May. The day brims with numerous events like folk-dancing and singing, handicrafts exhibitions, ‘Diffa’-banquets in tents, flower-decked floats, the election of Miss Rose, camel-rides and a splendid excursion by bus from Ourzazate down the valley of the Roses.

The reason for the venue of this event is that El-Kelaa M’Gouna hosts a vast distilling plant that produces scented rose water, which is a popular ingredient in nation’s cooking and perfumery. Although El-Kelaa smells divine all year long, during late May, the springtime there the whole area resembles a celestial garden awash with pink Persian roses. Thus the rose farmers from the surrounding hills gather to celebrate the year’s harvest, which is more than just that. It is more like their labor of love.