Gozo folk group for Serbia festival

The Menhir Qala Folk Group, a Maltese dance and song folk group from Qala, has been invited to take part in the International Folk Festival being held in Kralyevo in Serbia next month.

The group - currently made up of 17 dancers, seven musicians and a soprano singer - will fly to the Serbian town as part of a collaboration agreement between the municipality of Kralyevo and the Qala local council.

For the occasion, the mayors of both towns will be signing a document on future cooperation through exchanges of local groups. The group will perform several traditional Maltese dances and songs, while soprano Ruth Portelli will interpret Maltese numbers, among which are the group's original songs Wirt il-Qala, Il-Bajja tal-Hondoq and Il-Menhir.

Besides their participation in this festival, the group will also perform at a local restaurant and at the 100-year-old railway station of Etno.

One of the highlights of their tour will be a food-tasting event of Serbian and Gozitan cuisines being held in the town hall of Kralyevo.

This is the third consecutive year that the folk group, which was founded in September 2003, will be representing Malta, apart from having taken part in several local and national events and festivals.

One of the most important forthcoming events on the group's agenda is the second edition of the Qala International Folk Festival which will be held in the Gozitan town from September 27 to 30.

The two foreign folk groups participating in this festival will be the Shumen Folk Group and Dance Ensemble from Bulgaria and the Danaj Folk Ensemble from the Czech Republic.

The group will be also perform in Mellieha and St Julians on August 28.