3 Best Performing Arts in Fez and the Middle Atlas, Morocco

Sponsored by the Spirit of Fez Foundation, a nonprofit association working to maintain the city's cultural heritage, the annual Fes Festival of World Sacred Music focuses on a different theme each year and has become an international favorite, attracting some of the world's finest musicians and intellectual scholars for the Fes Forum roundtable debates. Concerts are held in diverse venues across the city, including the imposing Bab Al Makina. There are also free concerts, including Sufi Nights, held daily in a palatial dar. It's currently held in June (the date varies with Ramadan), but check the website for specifics.

Meknès's annual international animated film festival (FICAM) at the French Institute takes place each spring, though the month may vary.

The town is most famous for its annual four-day Festival des Cerises, or Cherry Festival, which celebrates the yearly harvest in June with food, music, elaborate costumes, parades and cultural activities, including fantasias (a musket-firing cavalry charge) and the crowning of the Cherry Queen. It has been celebrated since 1920 and is now on UNESCO's intangible cultural heritage list. During the festival, a procession ventures across the Aggai River to the Kef el-Moumen caves, home to ancient tombs, including one for the prophet Daniel, a pilgrimage venerated by Jews and Muslims alike. According to legend, seven followers of Daniel slept here for centuries before miraculously resuscitating.