Erfoud Date Festival

The Erfoud Date Festival is held in early October for three days (depending on the crop) and is a great destination to stop on a Morocco Private Tour. Erfoud is a small oasis village located 6 hours east of Ouarzazate in the Moroccan Sahara desert. It's a calm little town with red buildings surrounded by magnificent scenery and date trees that stretch from Er Rachidia to Rissani in the north to form Morocco's largest palm forest.

The village comes alive each October when the dates are harvested for the annual Date Festival celebrations. With about a million date palms, Erfoud sits at the heart of the date-producing region. The festivities are accompanied by traditional music, dance, and processions, and it is an opportunity for tourists to sample the local festival food, particularly dates, and enjoy the fun of the three-day celebrations, which include a fashion parade through the streets and the crowning of the "Date Queen." A thrilling dromedary race is also held.

Official tents for firms and cooperatives to promote their dates or date-related items are set up on the first day, with an official Governmental opening. Moroccan dates come in a hundred various types, with 45 of them growing in the south of the country alone.

During the date festival, travelers can stay in a variety of hotels in Erfoud. It is critical to make reservations well in advance. The Kasbah hotel, Chez Tonton, Auberge Derkoua Chez Michel, and the Belere hotel, to name a few, are among them.

Iftar, the first meal after the fast, includes dates, milk, and a bowl of harira soup. Dates are also immensely significant in Islam, with the date palm being referred to as the "tree of life" in the Genesis story. They're also crucial to the local and national economies. Morocco exports almost 90,000 tons of dates each year, thus the event allows people to express gratitude for the harvest and pray for a successful crop the following year.

Where: Erfoud

When: October, check online for confirmed dates.