Ouarzazate will host the Morocco Solar Festival from 17 to 19 October 2014. An international event dedicated to the "Sun" and the sustainable development of desert areas. The objective of the Morocco Solar Festival is to contribute to raising awareness by sensitising citizens to the risks threatening our planet and the opportunities available to them to encourage new behaviours. "The Morocco Solar Festival is fully in line with a civic approach which, for the first time, will make the Moroccan Sahara desert the showcase for a unique development model; the showcase for a land of dialogue and encounters; the showcase for a country deeply committed to the development of new energies and in particular solar energy," the organisers announce.

In Ouarzazate, the host city of the "Noor" integrated complex, one of the largest solar power plants in the world, the Morocco Solar Festival aims to be artistic, fun, educational, touristic, media-oriented, technological, global and participatory all at once to demonstrate a single idea: "The gold is in the sky!" This first edition will be structured around three pillars: "Science and Technology", "Knowledge and Discovery" and "Art and Culture". Demonstrations, records, screenings, awards ceremonies, conferences, fun activities for children... the weekend's programme will be dense and will culminate on Saturday 18 October at 8:30 p.m., with an exceptional concert by musicians from the Paris Opera and other great orchestras under the celestial vault of the desert.