Il-Mudlamin, by Trevor Zahra u l-Kumplament. Photo: Elisa von Brockdorff

With 28 productions and some 200 performers, this year’s edition of Żigużajg International Children’s Festival promises to offer young ones another magical arts experience with a multi-disciplinary approach.

“This year we have an even bigger number of commissioned works and international artists,” festival artistic director Toni Attard said. “We are very happy with the level that has been achieved by the Maltese artists; judging by what we have seen so far, both children and their parents are in for a treat.”

Every year so far, the festival has had a specific theme and this year will be no different. Last year, in keeping with the spirit of Valletta, the theme was ‘The Contemporary within the Baroque’.

This year the team has allowed itself to get inspired by the national festivities celebrations and will be using the multiple anniversaries as a springboard for discussion.

“The theme is very loose, but we wanted to explore the idea of identity. How do the events that are commemorated by the national festivities relate to today’s generation?

“For children who were born in a country that is an EU member, how relevant is Independence Day to their everyday life?” Attard asks.

One thing that he is keen on emphasising is that the festival is a fully-fledged one, planned to be executed on a par with international standards.

In his words, this is not a case of “get some animators and do a spot of face-painting”. In short, it is the real deal.

This year’s commissioned works range from music to puppets, theatre, street theatre, interactive events, visual and digital arts and more.

The call for proposals started in January, when some 32 pro-jects were submitted during a public call.

“We short-listed those that fit within our vision for the festival and met again in June for a two-day seminar during which all short-listed projects were presented to the rest of the team.

“We invited an artistic director from a Dutch company to be present; getting an outsider’s feedback is always important,” Attard said.

Apart from a healthy discussion and further project growth, there was also another positive aspect to the seminar: a number of artists decided to collaborate or amalgamate their projects in some way or another.

We aim to make these productions part of national repertoire, to export them

“The idea is for these productions to be sustainable. We do not want to produce them once and allow them to die.

“We aim to make them part of a national repertoire, to export them ...” Attard continued.

If the previous editions of the festival are anything to go by, children and their families will be flocking to these events.

For many young ones, Żigużajg is likely to be their first arts-related experience – this, Attard said, makes the responsibility that much bigger.

“Children are sharp. You can’t treat them like a dumb audience, they want to be challenged.

“For many, this would be their first theatrical experience, and heaven forbid that we ruin it with a production that is not up to scratch.

“Such an experience could put them off similar events for life.

“It is up to us to make sure that this does not happen,” he said.

Judging by the programme, which has a definite preference for the contemporary, such an occurrence is very unlikely.

Żigużajg International Arts Festival for Children & Young People will run between November 17 and 23.

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