The Malta Council for Culture and the Arts (MCCA) launched the calendar of events for its third edition of the Malta Arts Festival – Summer 2006, at a press conference held at the Westin Dragonara Resort, St Julian’s. The three-week festival will run daily from 28 July to 20 August 2006.

The main events will be centred on the site of the Old Opera House and Freedom Square which will be appropriately transformed for the occasion. Other venues will include the Mediterranean Conference Centre, the MITP theatre and St James Cavalier Centre for Creativity in Valletta and the Cottonera Waterfront in Vittoriosa.

“We are giving particular importance to the setting of the Festival in the Old Opera House and Freedom Square. On entering Valletta, people will immediately feel the atmosphere of the Festival through the exuberant setting that we are presenting,” said Davinia Galea, who together with Mario Frendo, is the artistic director of the festival.

This year the Malta Arts Festival – Summer 2006 offers a package of cultural events including light orchestral music, chamber music, dance, theatre, visual arts, multimedia performances and literary evenings along with street entertainment in our capital city, Valletta.

Two headlining events at this year’s festival are dedicated to Dmitri Shostakovich and Samuel Beckett, being the 100th anniversary from their birth. A novelty scheduled this year is a comic theatre performance by a sailing theatre company who sail onboard a Dutch herring logger. From 15 to 20 August the Ship of Fools will perform The World Upside Down in the natural setting of the city’s quayside at the Cottonera Waterfront, Vittoriosa.

The Festival is being held in collaboration with the various participating organisations. The Festival is being supported by HSBC Bank Malta plc, the Valletta local council, the Westin and Bank of Valletta plc. Moreover, the events are being held in cooperation and with the help of the National Orchestra, the Mediterranean Conference Centre, Manoel Theatre and St James Cavalier – Centre for Creativity. The festival is also being complemented by an initiative of the Valletta Alive Foundation who will present BoV Streets Alive!

Further information can be obtained from MCCA on Tel. 21 245 168 or one can log on to www.maltaculture.com