The final preparations for Valletta 2018’s Official Closing, happening on Saturday 15th December, are underway in St George’s Square.

With plenty of surprises in store, we look forward to hosting everyone in the heart of Valletta for L-Aħħar Festa: The Valletta 2018 Official Closing. Expect a spectacular line-up of live shows, music, art.. and a few unexpected touches too. Activities kick off as early as 10am and go on throughout the afternoon till late!

For this special occasion, local mainstay Tribali will create a kaleidoscopic open-genre musical world at the heart of Valletta, thanks to their unique and eclectic sound, while singer/songwriter Ozzy Lino and the fresh and funky sounds of the Brass House Unit will be bringing you all the good vibes thanks to a lineup of dynamic, foot tapping and singalong tunes. This and much more will be unfolding on the main stage in St George’s Square from 6.30pm onwards, together with hosts Mireille Bonello and Svetlana Muscat.

Moveo Dance Company, DJ NeoX and the Valletta 2018 Chorus will also be performing on the main stage.

While performances at St George’s Square begin at 6.30pm, L-Aħħar Festa has much more to offer as the official closing event kicks off at 4.00pm with a fringe programme. This includes a roundup of the year with performances and installations from some of the projects in Valletta 2018’s Cultural Programme happening in the city’s main streets.

Numerous members of the Mewġa Mużika citizen orchestra will take on the mantle from Ondamarela and perform together while sharing their love of music with the public. They will give two performances at Pjazza Teatru Rjal, at 4.30pm and 5.30pm respectively.

At 5pm, Old Theatre Street will see an installation and film screenings by Valletta 2018’s project Magna Żmien: a project aimed at the digitisation of old analog footage from personal collections found in Maltese households. Don’t miss this chance to watch the visual narratives produced throughout the Magna Żmien project. You can also interact with the Magnificent Memory Machine, Kapsula Merill!

The Big Dancers’ signature giant marionettes will also be bringing colorful pop-up street performances guaranteed to charm the young and the young at heart. Catch them dancing around the streets of Valletta from 5.30pm onwards!

ŻfinMalta and Valletta 2018 will be joining forces for an interactive performance called Ballroom at Is-Suq tal-Belt at 6pm. The performance is inspired by Valletta 2018’s outreach projects Jump and Dance4All.

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Trade Promotion is teaming up with Valletta 2018 and artist Charlie Cauchi to bring Sempre Viva. Named after the hardy, indigenous plant that clings to the rocky shoreline of the Maltese Islands, this exhibition consists of new work drawn from material collected by Charlie Cauchi’s ongoing transmedia project, Latitude 36. The exhibition will be open to the public from 10am onwards at the Courtyard of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Trade Promotion.

Spazju Kreattiv will also be open to the public from 10am onwards, showcasing Not Just the City. This exhibition emerged from a collaborative international programme of artists’ residencies coordinated by Valletta 2018 and Fondazzjoni Kreattività.

The streets of Valletta will also see a multi-site interactive installation called Memory Wall which will see highlights from the Valletta 2018 Cultural Programme reinterpreted by various artists in diverse media. The installation will be spread across Valletta. Look out for live painting by multidisciplinary artists from 10am onwards! They will be offering their own take on different aspects of Valletta 2018 and an artistic rendering of the passage to the next European Capital of Culture.

The public will also have the opportunity to visit two of Valletta 2018’s major infrastructural projects: the newly-opened National Museum of Art, MUŻA, and the upcoming Valletta Design Cluster. MUŻA, Valletta 2018’s flagship project housed at the Auberge d’Italie, will be holding an open day starting at 10am and running till late. The public will also have the opportunity to see the ongoing works down at the Old Abattoir (Il-Biċċerija) which is set to reopen as the Valletta Design Cluster. Guided tours will run every half an hour between 11am and 3pm. Small groups of max. 10 people will be taken into the building per tour, therefore, bookings are mandatory. To reserve a spot, please send an email to [email protected] indicating 3 time slots of preference.

Join guests, visitors, artists, curators, residents, Tal-Kultura volunteers and the Valletta 2018 team in a lively closing event that pays tribute to the creative diversity that exists on our Islands, in Europe and beyond!

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