Hundreds of families, young people and visitors raised the curtain for Malta's European Year of Intercultural Dialogue. Held at St James Cavalier Centre for Creativity in Valletta on February 22, Festa 5 presented an intercultural feast of music, dance, food, film and literature from around the world, taking over all the spaces at St James Cavalier with audiences attending more than 30 cultural events over four hours.

President Eddie Fenech Adami, patron of the European Year in Malta, presided over the event. He was accompanied by Tourism Minister Francis Zammit Dimech, and Joanna Drake, Head of the Representation of the European Commission in Malta.

The walkabout, led by Chris Gatt, general manager at St James included members of the Indian, African, Arab, Chinese and European communities living in Malta.

In the atrium, Dr Fenech Adami was greeted by a crowd of young children who were busily engaged in creative activities. As some listened to stories from around the world and made their own tribal mask, others built their own didgeridoo, learned a few steps of flamenco and wrote their first words in Chinese and Hebrew.

During the feast, Renzo Spiteri together with five other musicians presented a new intercultural music project.

On the night, more than 400 people witnessed a musical preview of sounds created by Maltese, Congolese, Sudanese and Eritrean musicians and singers.

Another highlight of the evening was the world premiere of The Dolls Trial, composed by upcoming composer Alexander Vella Gregory. Performed by Robert Calleja (flute), Sarah Spiteri (viola) and Godfrey Mifsud (bass clarinet) and surrounded by drawings of children from the Jewish community in the Nazi ghetto of Terezin, the moving performance commemorated all those who suffered cultural oppression.

Raphael Vella's artistic installation, consisting of a huge clothes-horse with larger-than-life books hanging at different levels, certainly engaged curious onlookers. Each book cover has a laser-cut title bearing the name of God in different European languages. Vella's sculpture is a meditation on the erasure of the name of God in an increasingly secular world while exploring the co-existence of many definitions of the divine in Europe.

Sarah Spiteri and Mr Vella Gregory delighted audiences with a witty musical performance about the various cultural influences on Western classical music since Mozart. From the theatre world, Annabelle Galea and Lizzie Eldridge skilfully provoked the audience's cultural identity during a comic intercultural cabaret.

Audiences also enjoyed an excellent flamenco performance by Rosana Maya and Maria del Sol, a tango performance by Isla del Tango. Chinese music and a demonstration of Tai Chi presented by the China Cultural Centre, together with one-minute films from around the world by young people, added to the evening's diversity. A number of well-known authors such as Trevor Zahra, Clare Azzopardi, Adrian Grima and Immanuel Mifsud together with others from Palestine, Galicia, Eritrea and Slovakia shared readings of literary works with the audience.

Festa 5 also offered the public an array of food from around the world, prepared by Arab, African, Asian and European communities.

The European Year of Intercultural Dialogue is an initiative of the European Union and is co-ordinated in Malta by St James Cavalier. The national project entitled '5' is co-funded in Malta by the Ministry for Tourism and Culture with the support of the National Lottery Good Causes Fund.

A full programme of upcoming events is available at www.sjcav.org or at www.dialogue2008.eu.