The Valletta 2018 Foundation is actively endorsing The Maltese Islands Festival – a competition-based platform for amateur performing arts practitioners and students. The Festival strives to provide more performance opportunities for performing artists. It also aims to create a high quality atmosphere of togetherness, relatability and shared enjoyment, thereby embracing the Foundation core value of citizenship.

The Festival is open to both adults and children across music, dance, singing and drama genres (pop/modern and classical). Group applications are also accepted. Participants shall perform a piece from their chosen category in front of both a public audience and an international adjudicator qualified in the respective field. Adjudicators brought from abroad will offer international bench-marking standards and unbiased expert perspectives.

Medals and plaques will be awarded to the top performers in each category, but winners will not be awarded if the standards in the category are not high enough. The Festival will also submit a report to the British and International Federation of Festivals to ensure that the festival management and execution is in line with international counterparts.

The Festival will be taking place on the 13th, 15th, 16th and 17th December 2017 at Spazju Kreattiv, St James Cavalier, Valletta.