This is an overwhelmingly Muslim country, but you wouldn't know it from the music festivals.
The Casablanca festival turns the commercial capital into an urban Woodstock, with masses of young people clogging the mosque-filled streets and partying to the pulse of hip-hop, rock, pop and Arabic music. An estimated 2 million people attend free concerts at a dozen venues each year, many snapping up the action on their cell phones.
Casablanca is only one of about 400 yearly festivals sponsored by authorities across the country, not to mention the sports, dancing and singing contests organized on popular beaches every summer.
The promotion of culture and leisure by Morocco's moderate government has a political undertone. The country's increasingly powerful Islamist groups view it as a deliberate attempt to deviate youth from traditional Islamic values. Even some government officials admit the aim of the merrymaking is to promote the liberal values they'd like to see society embrace rather than radical Islam.
Most youth don't see it that way. They just enjoy the free music and the opportunity to party in this country of 34 million where unemployment is particularly high among young adults and where parents usually keep a tight grip on their children.
“I like these concerts. ... The artists are role models for young people," said 19-year-old Fadoua Hakki at a hip-hop event in Casablanca. Oumaima, 17, praised the “big strides" made by the new generation of homegrown Moroccan rappers. “They're very good, and they voice our concerns," she said.
The streets full of trendy teenagers dancing to the Tecktonik craze that has swept Europe stand in striking contrast to the near-medieval living conditions in Morocco's countryside or the sprawling slums around Casablanca, which have become a hotbed of Islamism.
Such festivals would be unheard of in more rigorous Muslim states, where the mixing of boys and girls, free sale of alcohol or even dancing in public can be forbidden. But Morocco, a strong U.S. ally and a major tourism destination, prides itself on a cultural diversity that allows scantily clad girls to attend a concert side by side with women wearing Islamic head scarves.
Artists in Casablanca this year included international reggae and hip-hop stars. The yearly Gnaoua mystical music festival in the resort town of Essaouira attracts top jazz and rock players, and in Rabat, Morocco's capital, this year's edition of the Mawazine world music fest included Whitney Houston's return to the stage, jazzman George Benson and French electro DJ David Vendetta.
Mawazine takes place a stone's throw from King Mohammed VI's palace and under his direct patronage. Organizers say bringing in big names to festivals reflects Morocco's traditions of mixing cultures and people from Europe and Africa.
“That openness can only continue if there is an exposure to cultures from the rest of the world," said Ahmed Ammor, the head of the Casablanca festival organizing committee. “It's part of the king's project for society. That's why you see a festival in nearly every town."
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