Malta's first World Music Festival will take place in May at Fort St Angelo, the Arts Council announced today.

The festival will take place on May 19 and 20.

Festival artistic director Renzo Spiteri said he would like the festival to be seen as a celebration of cultural diversity and a dynamic platform for the exchange and dialogue of artistic ideas. 

This year's edition will be opened by Brodu, an alternative Maltese band formed in 2011. Playing rock music with influences from various genres, Brodu will bring music in the native Maltese language to the festival. 

Other performers are Tsuumi Sound System, an eight-piece Finnish modern folk music band rooted in Nordic folk traditions and Tiwiza, a Franco-Algerian group with a North African tradition based on the notion of solidarity as their name. 

The Khoury Project, a trio of brothers playing contemporary music which combines identifiable Arabic forms with globalised rhythms, will open the second day of the festival. Sona Jobarteh's voice, known through her contribution in film scores will also be heard during this edition of the festival. 

The festival will close with BandAdriatica, a project in which music is created from the encounters and exchange of people and their traditional repertoires, contributing to the continuous development of traditional music and in keeping with the festival's aim of celebrating cultural diversity.

Culture Minister Owen Bonnici said that during this legislature it was recognised that artistic expression and cultural activity are important not only as a means of entertainment, but also because it carries enormous importance for society's development.

Early bird tickets for the festival are available until April 15, selling at €10 for single tickets and €18 for block tickets. Tickets will then be sold for €12 and €20 for block tickets from April 16.  Tickets can be purchased from the Teatru Manoel box office, or online from www.teatrumanoel.com.mt.  More information about the festival and participating artists can be found on www.maltaworldmusicfestival.org.

 

 

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.