An entertaining as well as educational Għanafest, this year dedicated to its originator Ġorġ Mifsud Chircop, who passed away last December, came to a successful end yesterday.

The festival, which started on Friday at the Argotti Gardens, was this year artistically directed by Ruben Zahra who, over the past decade, has taken an active role in reviving Maltese traditional instruments.

"This year's concert has been very successful and we have doubled the audiences with the number of visitors reaching 400 on Saturday during the festival's peak.

"I wanted to widen the festival to a bigger audience. I did not want just the people who love għana but a mixed audience so a mix of traditional music was included," Mr Zahra said.

In fact, taking part in this year's concert were, besides the għannejja, the traditional folk ensemble Nafra and Maltese guitar music known as Daqq tal-Prejjem, where the role of the għannej is replaced by the lead guitarist who embellishes the music with a vibrant sequence of melodic patterns.

Yesterday's programme also included a concert by Walter Micallef and a special performance by Andrew Alamango.

To complement the Maltese music, two Mediterranean groups - the flamenco ensemble Krama, from Valencia, and Uaragniaun, from the region of Puglia - also took part in this year's festival.

Uaragniaun also joined Mr Alamango in his performance yesterday and the Italian singer sang għana in Maltese.

An educational feature introduced this year involved daily 20-minute workshops during which a limited number of the public had the opportunity to meet the foreign artists, see their instruments and learn about them. Yesterday's workshop was on the Maltese instruments.

Mr Zahra said that the feedback from the foreign groups has been great.

They were given a warm welcome throughout their stay and they were even asked to join in by the Maltese għannejja when he took them to the Pieta' boċċi club in the morning, where there is Maltese għana every Sunday.