The story
International Sponge Festival Zarzis in Zarzis
The International Sponge Festival in Zarzis is a summer celebration of the Mediterranean coastal town's sea-sponge harvesting culture, running from late July into mid-August. One of Tunisia's oldest local festivals, it centers on the kharja, a communal outing to the port where residents and visitors watch and take part in sponge diving and harvesting.
Zarzis sits on Tunisia's southeastern Mediterranean coast, a town of roughly 75,000 people whose identity has long been split between two crops that could not look more different: silvery olive groves inland and, offshore, the sea sponges harvested from its shallow coastal waters.