A three-week celebration of the arts

Sixteen very different cultural events will be spread across 24 days during this year's Malta Arts Festival scheduled to start on July 1.

Adrian Mamo, chairman of the Malta Council for Culture and the Arts - the festival's organising body - said this year's fourth edition aimed primarily to highlight the collaboration between Maltese and foreign professionals hailing from different backgrounds and practising diverse art forms. In fact, about 90 per cent of the events will provide a platform for such collaborative efforts.

The festival also seeks to give importance to the arts in a Mediterranean context.

Mr Mamo stressed that the MCCA was not an organiser of events per se but rather a non-profit entity which supported and took on board a number of events such as the Għanafest which took place last weekend and the Jazz Festival coming up next month.

Launched yesterday, the programme of this year's Malta Arts Festival includes the Marsovin Summer Wine Festival, previously a separate event and now incorporated within the festival.

Among the other events will be a chamber music recital featuring the work of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy in commemoration of the bicentennial of his birth; the music of the Argentinian tango composer Ástor Piazzolla; the Cosmos Ensemble, a dance performance by La Compagnie Julien Lestel; a music/theatre installation by the Rosa Ensemble; a theatre project based on Shakespeare's King Lear, and a visual art exhibition titled The Live Model.

A variety of venues will be used, most of which out in the open, such as the Opera House ruins where a theatre in-the-round is being devised, the President's Palace courtyard, Hastings Gardens, Argotti Gardens, No. 68 St Lucy Street Art Gallery and the Auberge de Castille courtyard.

Although this year's edition features fewer events than in previous years, art director Mario Frendo said this was because the focus was on quality rather than quantity. Budgets were limited and until that changed, the council preferred to promote quality events which however demanded more financial backup to organise. Mr Frendo said it was not easy to find sponsors to support events that ultimately attracted niche audiences.

Ticket prices have been kept reasonably low, ranging between €10 and €15. However no concessions or block tickets will be available. Tickets are available from www.maltaticket.com or from the following outlets in Malta and Gozo: Exotique, Agenda, Vodafone, Bookends and Newskiosk.