A local festival focused on encouraging sustainable living has raised almost €20,000 for charitable causes through its 2017 edition. 

Money donated by The Bubble NGO will be used for anything from ensuring the upkeep of Għajn Tuffieħa and Majjistral National Park to helping young people in places as near as Santa Lucija and as far away as the Philippines. 

Cheques totalling €18,500 were handed to four organisations by Environment Minister Jose' Herrera at a ceremony organised by the Bubble NGO at the Fortifications Interpretation Centre in Valletta. 

The Bubble is a yearly not-for-profit festival held at Għajn Tuffieħa which promotes awareness of sustainable living, respect for nature and contemporary art and music. 

"Our original aim was to bring people together in an outdoor space," NGO head Duncan Fenech said. "So many people spend most of their lives indoors, it's all too easy for them to lose touch with nature." 

Run by an NGO of the same name, the festival has a zero-to-landfill policy, recycling or composting all its resources. 

Last year, 380 participants and nearly 100 volunteers led by 26 coordinators put in an estimated 4,500 hours of work to bring the festival to life. 

"Every year we crank things up a notch," said festival sustainability manager Gayle Murphy, "and we have corporate groups visit the festival for sustainability tours too." 

Some of the festival's eco-friendly measures are not immediately apparent: "many people don't realise the [drinking] cups are not made of plastic and are actually fully compostable," she noted. 

Nevertheless, the festival is not without its critics, who say that the Gaia Foundation's Għajn Tuffieħa base should not be hosting events of that sort. 

Mr Fenech took the criticism well. 

"Too many people are out of touch with nature. Just one experience in such a natural space while surrounded by environmental awareness through workshops, positive signage and conscious events can and is opening people’s eyes to a better way each year".  

The 2017 edition of The Bubble festival raised: 

€6,000 for the Gaia Foundation, to manage its protected sites  

€6,000 for Right 2 Smile, to build a youth centre in Santa Lucija 

€4,000 for the Kabattan Orkestra project, which educates disadvantaged children in the Philippines through music 

€500 for Majjistral National Park