East to West Events, the company organising the festival, has received enquiries from people in Germany, the United Kingdom, Greece and Turkey. On Wednesday night, Renzo Spiteri and Mercan Dede played to a packed venue in Istanbul, during a promotional night for the Malta World Music festival.

The press conference and performance in Istanbul organised by East to West Events resulted in reports on the festival in media in Turkey as well as Europe. Renzo Spiteri and Mercan Dede, the main star for the first night of the Malta World Music Festival, spoke to international media and played to crowds at one of Europe’s leading alternative music venues, Babylon in Beyoglu, one of Istanbul’s major historical areas.

Babylon is Istanbul’s premier live music club, presenting music from jazz, world music and the electronica scene. Past concerts include names such as Gotan Project, Susanna Baca and Arrested Development. On the night, Malta was promoted as a cultural destination.

Works on the rehabilitation of Fort St Elmo, the venue for the festival, are proceeding at a good pace. The site has undergone a much-needed thorough clean up in preparation for the event. Architects are regularly present on site to ensure that all works are done in accordance with requirements for cultural heritage sites and great care is being taken by the organisers to abide by every regulation.

Entrance to the venue is now being regulated by a private security company in order to prevent the regular waste accumulation and continuous vandalism that has become symptomatic of Lower Fort St Elmo.

Tolga Temuge, the foreign partner of East to West Events, commented: “The Malta World Music Festival is first and foremost a cultural event made appealing to a wide range of audiences because of the variety of music that it presents. For the first time, Malta will host world music fusion bands that have a strong reputation in the world music arena, having gained a reputation through performances at some of Europe’s leading festivals. The two nights of the festival will present an alternative scene to the Maltese islands where ethnic music fans, jazz enthusiasts, latin music lovers and club-goers can come together in a multi-layered experience.”

Adding spinning vinyl to whirling dervishes, mixing the beats of ambient club music with deep Eastern rhythms, having piercing vocals accompany heart-throbbing percussions, fusing Latin beats and nu-bhangra sounds with modern electronica, the Malta World Music Festival is a cross-genre experiment never experienced before on the Maltese islands.

The first night of the World Music Festival will host one of Turkey’s best contemporary bands, Mercan Dede, featuring the Whirling Dervishes. Mercan Dede, has just returned from Rome where the band took part in the city’s prestigious jazz festival. The second night of the event will host one of the biggest names in the World Music scene, Transglobal Underground, and the night will be brought to a close with Future World Funk, renowned for their spectacular performances.

Tickets for the Malta World Music Festival are available from all Maltapost branches as well as Juuls in Spinola, Veccja Wine Bar in Xemxija and Cilantro in Mgarr. Seated tickets are only available from the Maltapost branch in Valletta. Gates open at 8pm and

performances start at 9pm.