We’re posting this to wish what seems like half the islands’ population happy festa!  Four parishes are in good earshot of our office tonight. The bangs and booms are constant.  In fact, an eighth parish has a St Mary feast: Birkirkara.  It wisely decided to shift it to next  weekend, perhaps to save our eardrums or allow some traffic to cross the centre of Malta without more ‘no go’ zones.

The photo, kindly reproduced from Ian Davies‘ stream on our Flickr group, is the Madonna at her most peaceful and pious. Ironic then that her feast sees Malta explode as if a war’s going on.

Malta is always colourful but in summer we do go ballistic especially in commemoration of village and town patron saints.  Seeing the revelry that goes on during the festa band marches, it’s hard to remember that these feasts are to commemorate people who probably led an austere or merit-worthy life of good deeds.

For a glorious day of feasts nothing beats August 15.  In Malta and Gozo the day is known as Santa Maria (or Santa Marija, its Maltese spelling); it’s also a public holiday. There are seven localities which hold a festa that day. Celebrations are held in style and with pizzazz in piazzas. The day is in commemoration of the ascension of Our Lady, mother of Christ.  Besides the fireworks and colourful stuff, you also get a variety of food, drink and festive marches with people having endless fun.  Our Lady’s entry into heaven is commemorated so grandly here on earth that she might feel a bit let down with what happens up in the heavens above.

Maltese love noise and we also adore making merry for whatever reason, be it the World Cup or the build-up to a general election.  It’s not always clear whether the cause or saint being officially commemorated is really the reason for the fun which sees people cavorting in a semi- or fully-drunken stupor. But who cares why we celebrate. We do and we love seeing visitors joining in the fun.

Santa Marija is however also celebrated solemnly (religiously and in good taste in churches throughout Malta) and with gusto in these localities whose parishes honour her:  Attard, Mosta, Mqabba, Qrendi, Gudja, Ghaxaq, and Victoria, Gozo (for a full list of Parish Feasts in August, click here).

I must warn you about Gozo on the eve of Santa Maria. A horde of Malta residents heads to Gozo around the 15 August as the week around Santa Marija see most firms shutdown for a summer recess.  Ferry trips to and from the sister isle can be a bit more time consuming.  If you are going up, remember to take a lot of water and sun protection as you’ll get dehydrated out on the scorching Tarmac at the Cirkewwa ferry terminal as you can wait up to an hour with no shade!  Ah, what we do for a holiday!  Perhaps it’s best to stay in those airy, cool churches and celebrate the feast that way!

Author’s blog: see more of Victor Calleja’s writing here.

Photo: Leslie Vella

Not all who go to the Farsons Great Beer Festival are interested in all the music on offer though with such a diverse line-up you can cherry pick a night to suit.  You’ll find the programme here.  And beer line-up here. Since it’s billed as ‘Malta’s largest outdoor music festival’, we’ll concentrate on the bands.

The line-up is nearly all local (with one exception – an Aussie rock n’ roll band) and spans almost all tastes with something of interest to most generations.  The event is about promoting new talent and bringing back popular favourites.  The programme takes place on a main stage and a rock stage with around three bands / artists a night on each. Music varies from the Big Band Brothers with their exuberant blasting sound and Malta’s Eurovision entrant 2011 Glen Vella to the Rifffs with their Ska formula, heavy metal Loathe and the eclectic, ethnic-inspired sounds of Tribali. Then there’s Fakawi. In fact, Fakawi on the last night has become an institution in itself with a theatrical not just musical performance that is always a big crowd puller.

We asked the organisers what makes 2011 special and to give us some insights beyond the regular PR.

The Jazz Festival opens this Thursday 14th July, and runs for three consecutive nights at Ta’ Liesse in Valletta. The Festival Director, Paris-based jazz guitarist Sandro Zerafa, thinks this year’s edition is the most eclectic to date – a true melting-pot of world music, showcasing the contemporary jazz scene, with musicians from Brazil, Jamaica, the Middle East, the Mediterranean and Africa.

The Festival kicks off with Benin guitarist Lionel Loueke, a Blue Note recording artist and a frequent collaborator of Herbie Hancock. His unique blend of jazz and African elements will be followed by Monty Alexander and the Harlem-Kingston Express. In a career spanning five decades, Monty has built a reputation exploring and bridging the worlds of American jazz and reggae, the music of his native Jamaica.

The Malta Jazz Festival has always had a penchant for cutting-edge New York jazz – this year, it is the rising star Ambrose Akinmusire, another Blue Note recording artist and a winner of the prestigious Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition. He will feature on Friday 15th July, in a double-bill with the charismatic Brazilian legend Joao Bosco, a must for lovers of samba, bossa-nova and MPB. This is the third time Bosco is playing in Malta, underlying the growing reputation of the Malta Jazz Festival on the international circuit.

Another familiar name on the New York scene featuring this year is sax player Seamus Blake, yet another laureate of the Thelonious Monk competition, who will be presenting his new electro/groove project featuring drummer Jorge Rossy.

The Festival will close with virtuoso bass-player and vocalist Avishai Cohen, whose blend of jazz, Mediterranean and Middle-Eastern influences has made him a prominent figure in world of jazz today.

The Festival will also include Maltese vocalist Nadine Axisa, the Argotti Jazz Ensemble (with musical direction by renowned musician Dominic Galea) and the quintet of guitarist Marc Galea (featuring saxophone player Robin Nicaise).
The Festival is organised by the Malta Council for Culture and the Arts. You can check out the festival website at www.maltajazzfestival.org. For more jazz, see the Off Jazz events.

It’s hot off the stage from the Istanbul European Capital of Culture (ECoC), 2010 and therefore has a special place on our Arts Festival bill as this year has seen Valletta declare it’s candidacy as an ECoC in 2018. Part of the ECoC remit is to have a European dimension; it seems Malta is getting off to a head start in the arts by attracting acts like this one from the wider Med region.

To quote the Istanbul 2010 website (see below), the Barbarossa project performance is “breathtaking”. And here’s what it’s about….

Focusing on the symbiotic relationship between man and water, the Barbarossa Project is a modern dance and musical two-act production of the life of Kaptan-ı Derya, the Fleet Admiral of the Ottoman Navy and the Mediterranean sailors of the 16th century. The music is by Mercan Dede, choreographed by Beyhan Murphy, also Director of Theatre and Performing Arts of the Istanbul 2010 European Capital of Culture Agency. Beyhan Murphy is also responsible for the design. Ballet dancers and soloists from Istanbul, Antalya, Ankara, Samsun, Mersin,and Izmir state ballet companies are featured in this production.

One of the favorite characters of Turkish history, Barbarossa Hayreddin Pasha or also known as Hızır Reis, was a half Turkish, half Greek, Ottoman admiral who was a privateer and master of the Mediterranean seas. This dance musical drama is exciting, dynamic and should not be missed if you are a lover of dance.

We think it’s a good one to take the kids too as it will excite them with a tale close to home and our islands’ history in an art form – dance – just being given its due in Malta. For more on dance and the Malta Arts Festival in general, see here.

Tickets: from maltaticket.com

The joys of having a big one are, in this island, endless.

I had friends over to my house last weekend for an honest, uncomplicated BBQ.  I enjoyed it so much that for once I ignored Harry the Howling Husky in the 1.5 sq. m balcony opposite our house, the poor dog whimpering for his owners’ companionship for a full two hours; ignored the other neighbour whose eight dogs have had enough of her companionship and would be willing to break loose in exchange for a lifetime in a Peruvian coalmine; and even forgot that come Sunday morning, there was quite a lot of work required to chisel the carbonised onion off the BBQ grates.

We decamped to dessert and TV, and here is precisely where the big one comes in – the disused 1.5 m satellite dish springs back to life  precisely at this time of the year, as it transmits BBC’s red button streams to areas as remote as the south of Malta. It’s time for Glastonbury again.

Glastonbury on the Beeb is all about chance and endurance.  There’s Elbow fronted by the likeable Guy Garvey, replays of BB King’s set  and irritatingly enough, the Vaccines and Biffy Clyro. We catch some live Saturday action with White Lies (read: A-HA, 2011) and completely miss Coldplay, an incredible stroke of luck. We’re nodding by the time the Chemical Brothers take to the stage.  On Friday, you had to endure a whole two hours of U2 for eight priceless minutes of Primal Scream and the drenched, poncho-wearing audience of forty-somethings swaying along to an anthem of the old days of Britpop, E, Factory Records, Madchester and everything it brought with it.

They were my age then, possibly a couple of years younger.

When I’ll be forty five I will reminisce – nothing. I will be writing about how sanitised we were in 2011, when I was 28, when basic civil rights were a distant reality and when MTV used to organise, with the help of local partners, the Isle of MTV:  a festival where the gross and the exaggerated mix so well together that only those who never went to Glasto, Werchter, Lowlands, Exit, Benicassim or any of the major European festivals will find remotely entertaining.

Isle of MTV perfectly represents its mother company: there is little music, talent is zilch, plenty of fake superstar bull and the perfect opportunity for artists and sweaty goers to revel in the general atmosphere of chavness that surround this event.

In three or four editions, I have never set as much as a toe inside Floriana.  I have a deep irritation with the obvious and with the uncreative, with the spectacularisation of trash and junk, and with the ludicrous press coverage of these events.

We are, of course, the perfect Isle of MTV, where nothing else is really important. We dream of pimping our rides and maybe also being sixteen and pregnant; we keep making a jackass out of ourselves (vide the Gary Neville gaffe) and – sorry, I ran out of shows to mention.

I stopped following MTV around 1998. I was sixteen. Then along came Thom Greene. Get the drift?

All the while we wallow, literally, in the mire of what is the lowest form of entertainment since the singing cats on YouTube.  We seem preoccupied, amusing ourselves to death with the commentaries of the bare-chested Snoop Dogg landing at MIA (the acronym is cooler than saying Gudja) and snubbing journalists, or by kids yelling “LMFAO” on One News, as if they’re waiting for bloody – who – wait – the messiah, maybe? – a sad reminder that this is all the entertainment they can aspire for. LMFAO.

Isle of MTV is everything we should be ashamed of.  On the one hand, MTA works up this huge PR bubble around the event, where we attract a major brand to our shores (we’ve got others too – like, uhm, Lidl…) for a night of madness and hedonism. On the other, the isle itself is so ‘MTV’ it constantly forgets to give its own talent due legroom.

For one, I would have expected our police force to be half as consistent as it is with our own nationals:  Isle of MTV is held in a residential area and the festival creates numerous inconveniences to residents.  Why not stop it at 11.02 pm?  I understand that Snoop Dogg has sold a few more records (and other stuff too) than Areola Treat, Tribali, Brikkuni, PDM and all the bands who suffered the humiliation of having a gig cut short by the boys in blue – including another few bands whose set was cut short during the Notte Bianca 2010.  I mean, the government sends the police to stop an event it funded itself?

I’ve nothing against staging Isle of MTV, weren’t it for its low entertainment value and the impoverishment of discourse it brings about. It’s OK to get snubbed and laughed at by talentless musicians and a gangster with a rap sheet longer than a toilet roll, who all end their set by saying “I’ll be back,” just like the milkman would tell… well you know who.  What I cannot swallow is the tough cookie the authorities have been handing Maltese artists in the last two years. There has been a systematic clampdown on independent music, culture and theatre productions by the authorities.  I don’t know how it all started, but I suspect the reasons are as alarming as their consequences.

It’s OK to have laws as long as they are fair and applied consistently. I wonder what type of fauna felt disturbed by the Wirdien festival in a field in Marfa last year when the police turned up to stop the show (two of the organisers got off with a fine and a morning in court) and whether the inhabitants of Gianpula, Attard and Rabat are simply too wary of picking up the phone to file a report.

I’ve seen bands/organisers give up plans for their events because abiding by the law is just too costly and troublesome, and somehow there’s the feeling your arse is never covered 100%.

Perhaps, the “social order” that many have striven to keep intact during the divorce campaign (they got rewarded by a miserable failure) has a reading in the arts and culture scene in Malta. If you don’t have the blessing of being mainstream, or you’re doing your work independently of government boards and big corporate sponsors or you don’t want any sweaty plump fingers in your pie, then something nasty is bound to happen.

Theatrical producers have found themselves subject of the censorship board, or a 12+ suitability rating slapped onto their works, writers like Alex Vella Gera… well you know the story.

Censorship and policing – it’s how Malta has entered the second decade of the millennium.  I have no idea how or when this ridiculously unjust situation will change.

Hand in hand, Bible and baton, but don’t worry, nigga, we’re the Isle of MTV.

Wayne Flask blogs at The Heckler.

Photo:  Martin Fisch

It’s a bit of a medley really. It’s also associated with one place only in Malta, as people flock to celebrate it in Buskett Gardens that lie between Rabat and Dingli. It’s a family affair with people taking picnics and tents to spend a night out under the small pines which make up Malta’s largest stretch of woodland, planted by the Knights as a hunting grounds.

The feast has roots dating back well before the time of the Knights in Malta. ‘L’Imnajra’ is the Maltese corruption of the Italian word ‘Luminara’ meaning festival of light. The feast’s celebrations were once marked by bonfires lit in Mdina and Rabat, so folklore has it.

What to Expect
The night is characterised by general merry-making and its sociable atmosphere, with people bringing along instruments and making music. Local folk and ethnic-inspired bands usually turn up to play and set the scene. Families have BBQs and picnics and kids romp around. Traditionally, people take rabbit (Fenek) stew to eat. It’s a Maltese national dish and there’s even a Maltese word for ‘going out to eat rabbit’ – Fenkata! Some families and groups of friends make a complete summer night of L’Imnarja and camp out.

The following day sees more organised rural pursuits: there is an agricultural show, which gets larger each year (seems to be a trend in Malta recently) as well as traditional bare-back horse and donkey races on Saqqajja Hill below Mdina. So expect some traffic chaos and roads blocked around that area.

Visitor Value
If you want to see some real Malta, then this could be worth a visit. It’s not the sheer exuberance of a village feast, as it’s more a summer folklore and farming affair. But it does have a certain appeal and charm. You will need to bus it there (Bus 81 from Valletta seems the best bet). Take some food and drink, get stuck in, and go with the flow. This is an impromptu affair in some ways, where people make their own fun.

More info & Programme: see our events listings.

Photo:rabbit: John Haslam. Guitar in firelight: Ben Kunesh

Fireworks have always ruffled emotions in this country – and none more so than petards, or murtali, the colourless ‘big bangs’ that are let off during the day and now increasingly after dusk too. If you want to get a flavour of what we’re talking about, there’s a short clip here. A few summer’s ago, a Facebook group was set up calling for a total ban on petards. The group has gathered nearly 3,000 members, and it had an online petition, presumably presented to Government at some point. The petition is still here. Judging by the noise outside my house right now, at 21.00, the group and its petition made little inroad into the mentality that says petards are perfectly fine, thanks.

There appear to be two broad schools of thought about petards:

Don’t ban them

1. Petards are part of Malta’s heritage.
2. Petards make a festa.
3. Petards honour the saint during the day.
4. If you don’t like petards, you are not a true Maltese patriot (and hence should never come close to a festa).

Ban them

1. Petards constitute noise pollution.
2. Petards are dangerous (accidents at fireworks factories are frequent, and often fatal).
3. Petards terrify babies, kids, the sick, the elderly, pets (my cat is hiding under my computer desk as I write),tourists, and anyone who has a problem with 153 db of unsolicited noise.
4. If you like petards, you are uncivil, a Neanderthal and bring shame to your country.

Where do we stand?

I love the coloured fireworks – they remind me of everything that is awesome about growing up on this island. And I hate petards with the vehemence of someone who, like most parents, had to explain to a child, at some stage, that Malta was not at war, that the window panes would eventually stop trembling and that if you close your eyes tightly and cover your ears, it will all go away, like a bad dream.

I live in the hope that petards will be banned in my lifetime. What of EC noise pollution laws? Surely, there is some recourse here?

Photo: Andrew Galea Debono

Some answers to how they joined forces to achieve this, driven by a common belief and passion, lie in Maltese society today. They are staring us in the face – in the phenomenon of the yearly village festa. My village is in thick of its festa preparations. Each day this week, as the main feast weekend nears, we’ve seen cranes, pick-up vans and fork-lifts trucks, more usually found at home in warehouses, deployed in putting up flags, band stands, pedestals, plinths, statues, poles and more.

Teams of men, the band club members and vast armies of community volunteers (who seem able to get a lot of time off work!) are now working flat out, from dawn to dusk. I’ve seen this played out for 17 years, and incredibly, each year the festa gets bigger, longer and more extravagant. The preparation isn’t last minute though; all year long, a core team is busy gilding, crafting, painting the ornaments ready for the next festa. It’s a non-stop labour of love.

As a long-term foreign resident, I am still an outsider looking in on all of this. I still ask myself how this mass mobilisation happens; I still marvel at it just as I do at the labour and blind belief that must have brought the temples into being several thousand years before.

Heave-ho and up he rises! Saint Atanajsu into place

Q. This is the sixth edition of the Malta Arts Festival, but it seems as though it’s been with us far longer. What do you think has made it such a part of a Maltese summer; so established and well supported?

Yes, the Malta Arts Festival has indeed established itself as a major arts event in the Maltese cultural calendar. This didn’t happen by chance. From the first edition in 2006 our aim was to create a festival of quality where Maltese and foreign artists of repute present their work. A quick look at past editions is testimony to our efforts to present only the best to our audiences. Obviously quality costs money. The festival is heavily subsidised by government, which is very positive as it shows that the institutions do believe that culture and the arts are of value for society.

Q. Is the Malta Arts Festival modeled on any other genre of festival worldwide or uniquely our own in style?

Not really. I believe each festival would have its own logic and rationale. So, imitating others would not make sense for our context. Obviously the basic structure of the festival is like any other, i.e. to have a concentrated programme of events that runs over a period of weeks. There are festivals elsewhere that run for months! However, I think that three weeks for Malta is quite a good span of time. Sometimes we are told that events are too close to each other. However that is the nature of a festival as opposed to a season of events.  In addition, having events happening close to each other makes it much easier to attract cultural tourism to the Islands. A quick look particularly at the last week of the festival, which comes up to the start of the Malta Jazz festival, shows that there will be a concentration of big names in the arts performing here.

Q. We’ve seen a lot of international acts and performers throughout the festival’s history. Is this something to expect more of as we see Malta submit its candidacy of Valletta as a European Capital of Culture, 2018?

The European Capital of Culture is a complex thing, which is not only about the organisation of events, but rather about creating a sustainable cultural infrastructure for a city. Part of this process also includes the organisation of events. In view of this, we are collaborating with the Inter-Ministerial Commission for the European Capital of Culture, Malta 2018, in order to see how we can contribute to the broader artistic and cultural scene in Malta.   As an example of the forward thinking and planning of this European cultural dimension, we see this year’s festival bringing over the Barbarossa Project, one of the central acts that was featured in last’s year European capital of Culture, Istanbul 2010. The project is spectacular dance-drama with a narrative based on the history and legends surrounding the 16th century Ottoman raiders sailing the Mediterranean, fashioning a grand epic of Sultans, ships and scimitars.

Q. What do you consider in trying to get the balance of local and international elements in the programme?

One thing for me is crucial – avoiding isolation. Maltese culture can be savoured to its maximum when presented side by side with other cultures. Hence the importance we give to presenting a mixture of Maltese and foreign artists. This we do with utmost confidence in our artistic product which is usually of a very high standard. We have an array of excellent Maltese artists on the rock who explore, investigate, and research their medium. They should be given constant space to create. Our duty is to invest in them. That’s what we do with the Malta Arts Festival.

Q. This year, the programme has a clear emphasis on dance. Is this by chance or by design?

It is definitely by design. This year the University of Malta added Dance Studies to its Performing Arts departments. I thought it would be a good idea to reflect this move in the Malta Arts Festival; to support the initiative which was triggered by University Rector Professor Juanito Camilleri and the good work that Professor Jo Butterworth, as coordinator of the new course, together with dancer Mavin Khoo are doing to set up the Dance Department. That’s why we’ve given more attention to dance events this year. In fact we commissioned Mavin Khoo to create a new work that will be premiered during the Festival on 5th and 6th July. Khoo is a fantastic dancer and choreographer of international repute who will continue to adorn the list of big names performing in the Malta Arts Festival over the years. His proposal, a revisitation of the ‘Sleeping Beauty’ myth is rather engaging. The performance ’00:00-00-01’ is without any doubt one of the main events this year.

The other dance acts are equally interesting; Ring is the latest creation of Puerto Flamenco. The ensemble needs no introduction to Maltese audiences. Maltese flamenco dancer Francesca Grima is a major arts ambassador for Malta abroad. We are sure the performance will be a huge success. Barbarossa I already mentioned. Stomping La Luna is a production by Contemporary Dance Ensemble Das Collectif. The performance is brought to the Festival in collaboration with the Austrian Embassy in Malta.  Das Collectif will premier the work in Austria in July just days before appearing in Malta.

Q. Another special feature of this year’s festival is its dedication to the late Charles Camilleri, one of Malta’s most renowned composers. For visitors to Malta, unfamiliar with his life and works, can you say briefly why Malta honours Charles Camilleri?

Composer Charles Camilleri was born in 1931. He died in 2009. This year he would have celebrated his 80th birthday. We thought this is a good opportunity to dedicate the festival to him. For those who do not know him, Camilleri’s creative career was a constant search for a ‘Malteseness’ that would characterise his entire oeuvre. It was a life-long journey that investigated our identity and its aesthetic manifestations, by unearthing tradition within the context of the new. More importantly, he reconsidered our identity within the context of others, by deliberately avoiding isolation and opening up to other cultures, traditions, textures, and sounds. Camilleri explored the soundscapes of the Maltese, interpreted, critiqued, and recontextualised them with his music. The result is an impressive portfolio of musical compositions with which he managed to trigger interest in our country on the international level. Charles Camilleri deserves our gratitude for this.

Q. As the festival’s director, what you are particularly proud of in ‘running the show’?

It is obviously a great honour to run one of Malta’s most important cultural events. This comes with its own responsibilities, of course. Running a festival is amazing. As Artistic Director I get to know a lot of artists, which is a great. All come with a baggage and with lots of stories to tell, on and off stage. I consider each year as a learning process for me and and all the team that runs the Festival.

Q. The Festival 2011 in a nutshell – quality, diversity, popularity, eclecticism…? How would you describe this year’s event?

One of the best editions yet! Can’t wait for the 1st of July.

More info:
Malta Arts Festival, 2011
Malta Council for Culture & the Arts

Photos: Courtesy Malta Council for Culture & the Arts.