What is the aim behind the Malta World Music Festival?
My aim is to bring high quality acts within the realm of world music, acts that go beyond the folk roots of a culture or country by fusing other musical elements within their artistic expression.
I think that this festival gives Maltese concert-goers the opportunity to attend a festival that focuses mainly on world music acts and to experience what intercultural artistic dialogue can develop into. This is why, referring to this year’s edition, we have bands that mix Celtic and African music, Balkan rhythms played over rock riffs and Tibetan singers playing alongside Syrian accompanists. With 47 musicians coming from 14 different nationalities, I could go on and on!
How have you seen it grow through the years?
This is the second edition of the Malta World Music Festival (MWMF) and I feel that this edition is feeding off a lot from the first and taking it to a higher level. Both Festivals Malta, as the organising entity ,and myself as the festival’s artistic director, had a very positive response from the first edition.
One could see that this festival attracted a crowd of all ages, spanning from the knowledgeable to the curious, from the highly energetic to the reflective. This is a wonderful thing.
I believe that, as an event, this festival has enriched Festivals Malta's calendar of events by offering something that has and will continue building on a very strong musical identity.
We had a great line-up last year and I am sure all those who attended for the first edition will agree. With the right support and belief from Festivals Malta, I was in a position where I could build on last year’s work and bring together the impressive line-up that will grace our stage.
What is the biggest challenge organising this kind of event?
This is an event that one can’t organise single-handedly. There’s a hard-working team behind the scenes- from management, to PR and marketing and logistics, stage requirements and so on.
From my end, the biggest challenge is to bring together acts that, when seen within a holistic perspective, give the festival the right shape in terms of music flavours, dynamics, calibre and presentation. This takes a certain amount of time and I like to give myself the space for ideas to mature, filtering thoughts until the right line-up resonates in a particular manner.
How important is it for the Maltese scene to be influenced by different cultures and sounds on a music level?
For someone who has travelled a lot and shared so many different performances with the most diverse of cultures, I would say that it’s one of the most enriching experiences one could go through.
Awareness of the diversity of cultures broadens our knowledge and perspective of music, of arts, of societies, of politics, dialogue and mutual respect. The music that’s presented at the Malta World Music Festival might act as inspirational tools for local artists, to see how the local scene could be expressed through other musical languages as a way of broadening what is at times a narrow outlook when it comes to creative possibilities.
Can you go through some of the highlights of this year’s programme?
I think each band is a highlight! I am coming across a lot of people who are just thrilled that the multi-award winning band Afro Celts Sound System is on this year’s bill and who can blame them? We also have the return of one of Estonia’s finest acts, Trad.Attack!.
Refugees For Refugees spin their magic with musicians from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Tibet and Pakistan, local band Cushion who, with their fusion style and strong focus are gaining increased following, Spain’s Ana Alcaide who will surely mesmerise our audience with her voice and very particular music and last, but definitely not least, the band Electric Gem who I like to refer to as a power house, a tour-de-force of fourteen musicians. Six brilliant acts over two days- I think that’s the highlight!
The Malta World Music Festival takes place on May 18 and 19 at Fort St Elmo, Valletta. Tickets are available online.
http://www.maltaworldmusicfestival.org/