What is the Rose Festival in Kelaat M’Gouna and when does it happen?

The Rose Festival is pure springtime joy. It happens in and around Kelaat M’Gouna, a small town in the Dadès region on the road between Ouarzazate and the Dadès Gorges, where mile upon mile of pink Damascus roses grow as hedgerows between the fields. Every May, when the roses bloom and are harvested at dawn for their precious oil, the community throws a festival to celebrate the season.

It is held over a few days in May, timed to the harvest. The streets fill with parades, folk-music groups and ahidous dancing, locals shower the procession with rose petals, and a young woman is crowned the festival’s rose queen. Cooperatives and stalls sell rosewater, rose soap, dried buds and the prized rose absolute used in perfumery, so it is also a wonderful place to shop.

Expect a smaller, warmer, more rural festival than the big-city music events — this is a genuine agricultural celebration, set against the red kasbahs and snow-tipped Atlas peaks of the Dadès. The scent of roses is everywhere, and the valley’s gentle hikes through the rose fields are at their most beautiful.

Worth planning around? It pairs beautifully with a journey toward the desert, since Kelaat M’Gouna sits right on the classic Ouarzazate–Dadès–Sahara route. I often weave it into a southern road trip in May so guests catch the festival and the blooming valley in one go. Lovely, low-key and very photogenic.