Kelaat M'Gouna Rose Festival to open on May 6

The 43rd edition of the Rose Festival of the Moroccan Southern town of Kelaat M'Gouna is to blossom on May 6 through 8.

The event, that coincides with traditional rose-picking ritual and rose-distillation, offers a rich and varied menu to the 30,000 tourists expected to attend the floral event.

In a grandiose setting, the festival will feature numerous events notably folk-dancing and singing, handicrafts exhibitions, banquets in tents, camel-rides and excursions from neighbour Ourzazate down to the valley of the Roses.

Twenty folklore bands, Nass El-Giwane band and amazigh Raysa Tabaamrant will animate the festival besides the Lebanese singer Youri Markadi.

The festival, famous for the coronation of Miss Rose, will end with a street procession in which the main role is allotted for the folklore bands.

Morocco exported 2,132 tons of roses in 2000 of a value estimated at MAD 79,31 million (nearly US$ 7 million).