On Thursday 6 October Valletta Waterfront will host the launch of this year’s Historic Cities Festival. One of the highlights of the opening day will be a performance by leading Sicilian folk group, I Timetos, who will perform at the end of the opening ceremony which starts at 11.45am.

I Timetos, who hail from Naso, in the province of Messina, have an established international reputation and recently performed at various festivals in Germany, Poland and Moldovia. The group, which was first established in 1988, includes some 30 dancers and 10 musicians and has a repertoire of traditional Sicilian music, song and dance. The repertoire focuses on everyday life with songs and dances that reflect the work, the feasts, the struggles and joys of the Sicilian people.

“Thursday 6 October will certainly be an eventful day at the Valletta Waterfront as several events will be taking place to mark the start of the Historic Cities Festival, organised by the Malta Tourism Authority. One of the highlights of the day is certain to be the performance by I Timetos who are well known for the quality of their performances,” said Chris Falzon, chief executive officer at VISET plc, operators of Valletta Waterfront.

The Historic Cities Festival is from 6 to 16 October. Nearly all of the opening day’s events will take place at Valletta Waterfront. In addition to the performance by I Timetos, besides the opening ceremony a re-enactment of a visit by Grandmaster Pinto to the Pinto Wharf Chapel, the opening of an exhibition entitled ‘Fantasy by the Sea’, and two concerts featuring Ruben Zahra, Sharon Bezzina, Mario Frendo, Lydia Buttigieg and Joseph Lia.