Malta will join another 105 countries to celebrate Fête de la Musique on 21 June; a big music festival – Festa Mużika – will be organised in St Paul’s Bay to mark the event.

Five stages will be set up in different areas of the locality. From rock to classical, folk to club music, a number of bands, DJs and other artistes from the UK, France and Malta will participate in the festival.

These include: The Yardbirds, an English rock band noted for starting the careers of three of rock’s most famous guitarists: Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck, The Animals, The Killer Queen, DJ Sonique, Prodigy Tribute Band Jilted Generation and Soasis, among others.

Launching the festival, Tourism and Culture Minister Francis Zammit Dimech said this was the third activity he had announced in a week, which would take place in the St Paul’s Bay area.

He said these events, together with a number of projects that the government was planning to undertake by means of EU funding, showed the government’s determination to improve and increase the number of attractions in the Bugibba, Qawra and St Paul’s Bay, which house about 40 per cent of tourist accommodation and entertainment facilities.

Fête de la Musique was first launched in 1982 by the French Culture Ministry. 21 June is the day of the summer solstice in the northern hemisphere, so the music festival in the form of a big street party in St Paul’s Bay will mark the beginning of the summer season.

Minister Zammit Dimech said the music festival will be a unique occasion for all music lovers. He said an activity of such magnitude would not have been possible without the collaboration between a number of entities.

The event is being organised by the Tourism and Culture Ministry, the Malta Tourism Authority, the French Embassy in Malta, the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association (MHRA), the Chamber of Small and Medium Enterprises (GRTU) and the Bugibba/St Paul’s Bay Bars and Restaurants Association.