Event Programme
The festival will take place over three days from Friday 25th November until the evening of Sunday 27th November. Up to date details of the festival’s individual events and their timings will be available closer to the festival date and on our Vamoos App.
Each day’s interviews, talks and discussions will be take place at a different venue of great cultural and architectural interest in the medina. All of these events are free and open to the public on a first come first served basis. Audience capacity will be limited, but Festival Passes are available to purchase online that will guarantee entry and a reserved seat.
Main events will be filmed and available on the festival Facebook page.
Each morning one of our guest culinary writers and chefs will hold a demonstration or lesson at the Maison Arabe Cooking School, which dates from 1946 and today boasts a spacious kitchen with every modern facility.
Tickets for the lessons are available online and are limited to 20 places.
Calliope will run a pop-up festival English bookshop situated close to the Djemaa El Fna.
Friday 25th November
The venue for the opening day of the festival will be Kssour Agafay, a 16th century riad of outstanding architectural interest that was once a private home belonging to a Moroccan noble family.
Events will run from 10am in the morning until 6pm in the evening with pauses for tea breaks and lunch.
Driss Mellal, contemporary Moroccan chef, owner of Nomad Eats Catering and culinary author, will be the morning’s guest at the Maison Arabe Cooking School. You can get tickets for Driss’s cooking class here.
Saturday 26th November
Saturday’s venue for talks and interviews will be Dar Cherifa, historically known as Dar Ijimi another spectacular Saadian period house that has been restored and converted into a cultural centre.
Events will run from 10am in the morning until 6pm in the evening with pauses for tea breaks and lunch.
During the morning the Maison Arabe will host a cooking lesson by Anissa Helou, international award-winning culinary author, journalist and chef. You can get tickets for Anissa’s cooking class here.
The British Academy School Marrakech in Targa will host a school open day for parents and children. There will be children’s events and exhibitions in the company of the MEBF children’s book guest author, Amina Hachimi Alaoui and illustrator Salma Kamal Ahmad.
In the evening there will be a sumptuous gala dinner at Dar Diaffa in the company of the festival’s guest authors in aid of the MEBF’s official charity Education For All (EFA) Morocco.
The dinner will be hosted by Mr. Simon Martin, British Ambassador, and his wife Sophie.
The gala dinner will be a paying event open to anyone wishing to attend. Tickets and details are available here.
During the dinner there will be a raffle draw in aid of EFA Morocco.
Tickets for the Gala dinner and raffle are also available from the World Storytelling Café, 93 Souk Al Fassis, near the Madersa Ben Youssef in Marrakech Medina. Details here.
Sunday 27th November
The Dar Bellarj Cultural Centre, owned and operated by the Susanna Biedermann Foundation, will host the closing day’s talks, discussion and interviews.
Events will run from 10am in the morning until 6pm in the evening with pauses for tea breaks and lunch.
During the morning the Maison Arabe will host a cooking lesson by Fayçal Bettioui, Michelin starred chef of the Krone Restaurant in Neupotz Germany. You can get tickets for Fayçal’s cooking class here.
