Centuries-old underground cisterns located underneath the Archbishop's Palace in Valletta will be opened up to the public for one weekend at the end of the month.  

The cisterns, which house fresh running water, will be open to the public during the Valletta Green Festival, Valletta 2018 chairman Jason Micallef announced earlier today. 

A yearly infiorata made up of 80,000 potted plants will colour Pjazza San Ġorġ during the festival, with the Palace garden and St Catherine's Monastery also open to the public for three days of the festival. The cisterns, garden and monastery will be open between April 28 and April 30, from 9am to noon and again from 4pm to 7pm.  

Two litter clean ups have been organised as part of the festival. On Saturday April 22, a sea clean-up will be taking place in Valletta, while a land and sea clean-up will also be taking place at Mellieħa's Aħrax on April 30.

Valletta 2018 chairman Jason Micallef (centre) announced the Valletta Green Festival programme earlier today. Photo: Chris Farrugia

Camarata Bar will host an open mic event on the evening of Friday April 28, while Maori Bar will hold an upcycled musical instrument workshop and performance the following evening at 7pm.  The Valletta 2018 mobile unit will set up shop in front of the Law Courts and host storytelling activities throughout Saturday and Sunday. These workshops are tied to Valletta 2018 project Poetry in Potato Bags and will be given by Leanne Ellul. A Rag Rug workshop in which old materials are upcycled into rugs will also be taking place on Saturday April 29 at 10am, led by Angele Galea. 

The Valletta Green Festival is organised by Valletta 2018 in collaboration with the Maltese Archdiocese, the Infastructure Ministry; the Environment Ministry; the Environmental Landscaping Consortium; the Parks Department, as part of the Tree 4 U (34U) campaign; and WasteServ Malta Ltd; with the support of Inizjamed and several NGOS including BirdLife, Fish4Tomorrow, Shark Lab, Żibel Malta and Friend of the Earth.

For more information, visit the Valletta 2018 website.