A weekend-long festival of cultural events is being held mainly at Gharb in March, in a bid to promote cultural tourism to Gozo in the leaner season.

It is being organised by the Gharb local council together with the Gozo Ministry, Gozo Minister Giovanna Debono and Gharb mayor David Apap told a news conference.

Seher il-Punent is a festival of culture spread over three days, bringing to the forefront the particular characteristics of the picturesque Gozitan village. The village square will be the main venue for concerts and other popular events but places of interest, including churches, countryside chapels, museums and heritage sites, and the Wied il-Mielah valley, will also feature as part of organised tours that are expected to generate a particular interest among visitors. Local bands, local personalities, traditional music and food, as well as fireworks, will also play a part alongside the infiorata tradition that is slowly becoming enshrined in the village’s way of celebration.

Minister Debono said Gozo was slowly gaining a reputation for particular events that were already proving popular with tourists. These included the annual production of lyric operas by the two theatres in Victoria in autumn and the Carnival weekend in winter. She said that cultural events formed a niche area that Gozo could develop further in an attempt to entice more visitors during the less popular months, and events such as Seher il-Punent would help to address the seasonality issue.

Referring to seasonality, Minister Debono pointed out that in the last budget speech, the Prime Minister announced a reduction of 25 per cent for the licence fee for all catering establishments operating in Gozo, with Gozo Channel Co Ltd and tourism establishments in Gozo also jointly offering schemes promoting free travel to Gozo.

Mrs Debono also spoke about the launch of a magazine last week aimed at further promoting Gozo holidays in Malta and added that the government would be announcing further initiatives in the coming weeks, aimed at boosting domestic tourism to Gozo particularly in the leaner months.

The Seher il-Punent cultural festival will be held in Gharb between the long weekend of Friday 16 and Sunday 18 March.