About Tunisia - Tunisia Guide & Information

The Tunisians’ ‘joie de vivre’ is reflected in their festivals. Even the smallest village sets aside a time for celebration, whether it be for the summer harvest, fishing season, a local saint, or the arrival of spring.

Visitors are always welcome and urged to participate whether it be in dancing, competitions or just sharing a cup of tea. A balmy summer evening under a magnificent and starry sky is the classic setting for these occasions.

To see all festivals on a map of Tunisia, click here

Some of Tunisia’s most famous and spectacular festivals include

Carthage International Festival (July-August)

Carthage International Festival is the country's biggest arts event and mixes a programme of local and international sounds. The festival was founded in 1964 and has, over the years, attracted many of the greatest names in international music. Performances take place in the old Roman amphitheatre, which is incredibly atmospheric and a great place to see live music performed.

 

International Jazz & World Music Festival, Tabarka (July-August)

6-14 July: Jazz
From 6-14th July, the city of Tabarka will house the new edition of The Jazz A Session which is to succeed in attracting the huge crowd by focusing on artists of great calibre. It will be a genuine hodgepodge of musical flavours all beautifully seasoned with timeless and polymorphic jazz.

14-20 August: World Music
From the 4th-20th of August, Tabarka Jazz Festival will budge over for the World, Latino & Rai Music Festival. World Music is for music what biodiversity for the environment: a prerequisite for survival and growth. The Tabarka World, Latino & Rai Music Festival is a world tour of music, and, as we all know, an exposure to musical cultures from here and elsewhere is a source of continual enrichment for all, and a means to preserve and develop cultural heritage as a source of inexhaustible wealth to us.

The Latino section of the festival is more dance focussed, with three excellent evenings of music for which it is impossible to stand against the wall! The final, Rai, section of the festival will put the spotlight on North Africa, with a myriad of prestigious and talented musicians from the plains and mountains of the Rai area of neighbouring Algeria, and draws many loyal fans from all around to the performances every year.

Enjoy the breeze from the basilica, listen to the music and watch the dazzling sky, or keep up with the red hot pace of these exceptional bands and dance the night away.

Tunis Medina Festival (September)

The Festival of the Medina is traditionally held during the period of Ramadan and offers a variety of Arabic and Western entertainment. The main venue is the Tunis Municipal Theatre, however open-air spectacles are also planned, for example in the gardens of the Kheireddine Palace.
A rich and diverse cultural program has been prepared, including classical Arabic music as well as other forms of music from around the world. Cinema lovers will have the opportunity to see showings of short films by Arab and French film-makers, and there will be other forms of strange and popular entertainment, such as watching jugglers in a medieval setting.

Festival of the Sahara (December)

Douz Festival is now a huge celebration which attracts over 50,000 people every year, from nomads, to poets, artists, camel racers, and even sand-hockey players!

Aside from the market, at the Sahara Douz Festival you can watch some impressive greyhound or camel racing as well as the equestrian military exercises known throughout the Maghreb as "fantasias". These involve a veritable swarm of riders cantering across the ground, turning abruptly and stopping in their tracks before shooting into the air.

If all the excitement is too much, you can always retire to the food area and gorge yourself on Douz's recently harvested dates!

 

To see all festivals on a map of Tunisia, click here