Sfax Olive Festival

Held each January in Sfax, the Olive Festival celebrates the olive tree and its products in the very region responsible for more than a third of Tunisia's roughly one thousand olive oil mills. Tunisia has cultivated olives since the 8th century BC, and today ranks among the world's largest olive oil producers, with quality increasingly recognised by Michelin chefs and gourmet food lovers internationally — a reputation the Sfax festival was created specifically to promote.

Across five days, the festival draws more than 100,000 visitors for a programme spanning circuits through the Sfax medina and the nearby Kerkennah Islands, highlighting the region's ecotourism and agritourism alongside its core olive oil focus. An accompanying scientific symposium brings together local, European, Brazilian and American experts alongside representatives of the International Olive Council, giving the festival a genuinely serious industry dimension alongside its public-facing music, dance and horse-riding shows.

For visitors interested in olive oil specifically, Sfax offers access to Tunisia's two principal olive varieties — the green, grassy Chetoui from the north and the fruitier Chemlali — in the exact region where the country's olive oil industry, one of the oldest and most significant in the entire Mediterranean, remains most heavily concentrated.