We went for a drink with the Canadian on Thursday morning and noticed a big sound stage in the main square. Enquiry of the waiter indicated that there was a concert that night, the artist having previously performed in Fes and Meknes. We asked a friend about it. He had heard nothing but said it must be a religious group from one of the brotherhoods. As he has a shop 50m from the square it seemed the publicity was not very good. We decided to go that night. We were confused by the time change and went at ten past eight but last prayers is now ten past nine. They took a while coming on after prayers so did not start until ten. There was a barriered off area in front of the stage which was just for women and children. This appeared a big improvement on a mosh pit.
I enjoyed the music which was religous as the only word I could understand was "Allah". There were some arab lute-type instruments, violins played upright, a large percussion section and several of those shawm-type woodwind instruments.It was cold and we sat at a cafe and drank coffee to keep warm.
By half ten the cafe was shutting up. so we left after the first act. We decided not to go to the Friday concert to stay warm.
On Saturday we had lunch with the Teacher. He knew nothing of the concerts in the Square. He was aware of a much bigger stage near the provincial headquarters by the Palais Salaam Hotel but did not know what it was for.
The concert we went to was quite poorly attended which isn't surprising given the lack of publicity. All the concerts were free and had obviously been quite an investment by somebody, presumably the state. So, was Taroudant having a secret music festival or was it for very crowd-phobic musicians?
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