Sami Yusuf to perform two spiritual concerts at Fès festival

Wednesday 13 May 2026 - 08:39

By: Dakir Madiha

Sami Yusuf to perform two spiritual concerts at Fès festival

Sami Yusuf will return to the Fès Festival of World Sacred Music for two performances scheduled on June 6 and 7, 2026, at the historic Bab Makina. The concerts will headline the 29th edition of the festival and mark the first time the artist performs twice during the same edition. Organizers expect strong attendance as the singer remains one of the festival’s most anticipated recurring guests.

The first concert will take place on June 6, while the second performance will close the festival under the theme “La Nuit du Samaa, De Fès à Konya.” During the closing night, Sami Yusuf will share the stage with the Konya Metropolitan Sufi Music Ensemble, known for preserving the Mevlevi musical tradition and the ceremony of the whirling dervishes recognized by UNESCO as intangible cultural heritage. Moroccan Samaa vocalists and Mevlevi chanters will also participate in the event, creating a musical dialogue between Levantine and Maghrebi Sufi traditions.

Sami Yusuf described Fès as one of the world’s most spiritually significant cities and said his return to the festival represents a personal reconnection with sacred artistic traditions. He announced that the concerts will feature members of the Fons Sophia Collective alongside Moroccan singer Nabyla Maan, musician Ismail Boujia and Chinese erhu master Guo Gan. According to the artist, the performances aim to unite musical traditions from different civilizations around themes of wisdom, beauty and spirituality.

The British composer built an international reputation through a fusion of Western classical music, Middle Eastern traditions, Persian influences and Indo Pakistani qawwali. His work has attracted audiences far beyond the Muslim world and established him as one of the most commercially successful artists in the global sacred and world music scene. He has sold more than 45 million albums and generated over one billion downloads while performing at venues including Wembley Arena and the Royal Albert Hall. One of his largest concerts gathered more than 250,000 spectators in Istanbul’s Taksim Square.

The performances in Fès arrive shortly after the release of Sami Yusuf’s latest studio album “Ecstasy,” launched on March 27, 2026. Early tracks from the album, including “Voices of the Earth” and the a cappella collaboration “Being” with VOCES8, received strong critical attention. The artist first introduced the album publicly during a large scale concert in Istanbul in August 2025 titled “Ecstasy: Between Two Seas,” with part of the event’s proceeds directed toward humanitarian causes.

The 2026 edition of the Fès festival continues Morocco’s long standing strategy of positioning the city as a global center for intercultural and spiritual dialogue through music. The festival has historically attracted artists, scholars and audiences from across the world while promoting exchanges between sacred musical traditions from Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Europe.