Home > Culture > Fez Festival 2025: Global Experts Gather to Debate Heritage, AI, and Spiritual Renewal
Today, the Congress and Handicrafts Palace in Fez hosted a forum on the sidelines of the Fez World Sacred Music Festival, providing an essential gathering for global thinkers, policymakers, and cultural leaders.
Fez – Today, the Congress and Handicrafts Palace in Fez hosted a forum on the sidelines of the Fez World Sacred Music Festival, providing an essential gathering for global thinkers, policymakers, and cultural leaders.
Organized on the sidelines of the 28th edition of the Fez Festival of Sacred World Music, this year’s forum took place under the thought-provoking theme of “Renaissances.”
At a time when the world is navigating profound cultural, spiritual, and technological shifts, the forum strived to open up critical conversations about what renewal means in the modern era, especially from an African perspective.
A forum at the crossroads of heritage and innovation
The Fez Forum continues to serve as an intellectual cornerstone of the Sacred World Music Festival, providing a space where deep reflection and interdisciplinary dialogue converge.
Introducing the forum, Driss Khrouz, Fez Festival Forum director, made some key remarks.
“Renaissances is more than just a title or a theme, it is an invitation to explore welcoming horizons, to step through hospitable gateways into spaces and moments of kindness, hope, dreams, imagination, and discovery,” he said.
“This theme evokes knowledge, as well as social, cultural, and political dynamism. It can be examined through multiple lenses, but perhaps the most fertile and interactive dimensions are knowledge, heritage, and culture, each brimming with substance and possibility,” he added.
This year, with the festival spotlighting Africa and Italy through the participation of over 200 artists from around the world, the forum complemented the artistic program with urgent philosophical and cultural inquiry.
In this setting, Fez reaffirmed its historic role as a beacon of scholarship and spiritual dialogue, fostering conversations that connect the past with emerging global paradigms.
Expressions of Renaissances
The day’s first session, titled “Cultures and Heritage: What Expressions of Renaissances?” addressed how heritage and cultural memory can inform new societal narratives.
University professor at Rabat Mohammed V University, Jillali El Adnani, offered an intriguing perspective on the city of Fez as a site of politico-religious renewal in Africa, exploring how its spiritual legacy remains relevant in the continent’s contemporary political discourse.
During his address, El Adnani, noted the profound role of Moroccan spiritual traditions, particularly the Zaouia Tijaniya and other historic Sufi brotherhoods.
He spoke at length about their heritage, the archaeology of their history, and their enduring influence across regions. “Most of these confreries originate in Morocco,” he noted, “yet their spiritual and cultural reach extends far beyond,spreading to Europe, sub-Saharan Africa, and beyond, carrying with them traditions of knowledge, hospitality, and renewal.”
In parallel, Moroccan professor at the National Institute of Archaeological Sciences and Heritage (INSAP), Youssef Bokbot, focused on the significance of recent archaeological discoveries in Morocco and shed light on how these findings contribute to rethinking national identity and collective memory.
He detailed pivotal discoveries, from ancient Homo erectus sites to the world-renowned Jebel Irhoud fossils, which redefined human history by revealing Morocco as the home of the oldest known Homo sapiens.
“These finds are not just relics,” Bokbot asserted, “but keystones for rethinking national identity and collective memory. They position Morocco as a central zone for humanity’s origins, where every layer of soil challenges global narratives.”
Together, El Adnani and Bokbot framed renaissances as a confluence of spiritual heritage and scientific revelation, each echoing Morocco’s enduring role as a cradle of civilization.
Following these presentations, a moderated debate invited participants to discuss the role of culture in driving new forms of renaissance, particularly in regions navigating postcolonial transitions and globalization.
AI, culture, and the future
The forum resumed with a second session centered on technology’s impact on heritage.
Titled “What Can Artificial Intelligence Bring to Culture and Heritage?” the panel looked to scrutinize the promise and challenges of integrating AI into cultural policy and preservation strategies.
Amal El Fallah Seghrouchni, Minister Delegate in charge of Digital Transition and Administrative Reform in Morocco, discussed how AI technologies can be harnessed to make culture more accessible, interactive, and preserved for future generations.
Mohammed Benlahsen expanded on these ideas while also providing a critical look at how AI accelerates societal change while raising complex ethical and humanistic questions.
This session closed with an open discussion, encouraging deeper engagement on how to strike a balance between technological innovation and the safeguarding of intangible cultural values.
An homage to thought and music
As the Fez Festival of Sacred World Music fills historic venues with spiritual soundscapes, the Fez Forum adds a vital layer of reflection, inviting participants to consider how renaissances emerge not only in music and ritual but also through knowledge, debate, and innovation.
Together, the festival and forum create a space where art and ideas meet, reinforcing Fez’s enduring role as a crossroads of civilizations.
For scholars, students, creatives, and cultural practitioners, this year’s Fez Forum granted a unique opportunity to reflect on the spirit of renewal that is shaping our times, and to imagine new paths forward grounded in wisdom, diversity, and hope.
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