The story
Sidi Bou Makhlouf Festival in Le Kef
The Festival International Bou Makhlouf takes over El Kef's hilltop kasbah each summer, named for Sidi Bou Makhlouf, the Moroccan-born Sufi saint whose 17th-century mausoleum overlooks the old town. Since the 1970s the festival has staged live music, traditional Andalusian and Sufi performances, and craft and food markets across the fortress grounds, drawing residents of the mountainous northwest and visitors touring Tunisia's Berber heritage towns.
El Kef sits on a steep hillside in Tunisia's mountainous northwest, close enough to the Algerian border that its architecture and dialect carry a distinct regional flavor.