The Fantazia:  (Traditional sport)

 

There is one particularly stunning and exciting event that has taken its rightful place among the more noteworthy examples of traditional folklore in Morocco, those demonstrations popular customs of which Morocco is so famous and which stimulates tourists to come and to see for themselves; that even is the Fantasia.

 

This colorful display of horsemanship begins with a procession made up of women from the Zayaan tribe on horseback.

 

Behind them come, their menfolks in groups according to their tribe and bearing each group's emblem.

 

When this "lap of honor" finishes, it gives way to the real Fantasia, the Aid el Baroud (Festival of Gunpowder) with its gun-fire and bursts of shots.

 

The horsemen line up in close ranks, and no sooner has one wave of riders left than the next is ready to follow; the impression is that of surging waves of galloping hooves.

 

   The frenzied dash of horses is accompanied by the piercing cries of the riders and terse orders from their chief until the whole thing explodes in a blaze of gun-fire from their famous "moukhahla", the rifles that are so highly prized by gun collectors.

 

   And when the riding is over, then another kind of show begins on a platform that has been erected in front of the huge marquees.

   No show of popular folklore is complete in Morocco without music and dance. The spectator is, needless to say, enthralled by the diversity and richness of costumes and music that stretch back in time for a thousand years.

Since September 1977, the National Festival of Fantasia has been held in Meknes.