Mediterranean identity goes beyond the physical confines of the sea, as this year’s Għanafest showed, with music from nearby Sicily and faraway Iran drawing a similarly diverse audience.

The festival, spread over three days, started life as a celebration of the island’s traditional folk song but it has recently turned into a melting pot of musical styles with a Mediterranean tinge to them.

This year, apart from the variants of għana, the programme featured Maltese music from the 1930s, traditional Persian music, music from all around the Mediterranean and more modern Maltese hip hop in the relaxed setting of Argotti Gardens in Floriana.

The glue holding it all together was the Mediterranean, festival artistic director Ruben Zahra told the audience at a workshop on Sunday, which was not just the sea but the whole culture which spread beyond the shores. Despite concerns about a possible ban on the sale of alcohol, as happened in a recent concert where minors were admitted, beer and wine – part of għana’s natural context – were sold unhindered as the music played on.