A number of NGOs will be participating in this year’s Valletta Green Festival organised by the Valletta 2018 Foundation. The programme includes the participation of Birdlife Malta, SharkLab Malta, Solar Cinema, Żibel and the Gaia Foundation, who will all be organising workshops throughout the festival.

Birdlife Malta will be organising workshops on wildlife habitats alongside SharkLab Malta, who will be organising educational displays on their research on sharks, stingrays and skates in Malta.

Workshops will also be held by Solar Cinema, a Valletta 2018 Cultural Programme project which sees pop-up film screenings happening all over the island using solar power, highlighting themes of sustainability and the environment. The latter will be organising stop motion film workshops for children, that focus on utilizing recycled materials for art.

Environmental NGOs Żibel and the Gaia Foundation will also be hosting a collaborative, interactive sign-painting workshop. During these workshops, drift wood collected from clean-ups conducted by Żibel will be painted, and will be placed in various locations around Malta, encouraging the public to keep the island clean.

The workshop programme kicks off on May 3rd, coinciding with the opening of the floral carpet in St George’s Square and the rooftop garden on the roof of the Main Guard. Workshops will start at 9am and will run throughout the day till 8pm, across the whole weekend.

Other NGOs who will be participating during the festival include the China Cultural Centre in Malta, WasteServe, ELC and Garby & Tidy.

This year’s festival, now in its fifth edition, will have the biggest infiorata to date, made with 150,000 potted plants, which will transform the otherwise urban landscape of St George’s Square into a colourful floral carpet. Various spaces which are not generally accessible to the public will also be opened during the festival. These include the four-hundred-year-old gardens at the Archbishop’s Palace, the gardens of St Catherine’s Monastery, the gardens and the foundations of St Augustine’s Church and the gardens of St Dominic’s Basilica. These sites will be open between 9.30am and 12.30pm, and between 4pm and 7pm, between Friday 4th May and Sunday 6th May.

The roof garden at the Main Guard will remain open till the 13th of May. Visitors will be given tips on how to create and cultivate their own roof garden, and how this can be sustained on Maltese roofs.

The Valletta Green Festival is a Valletta 2018 collaboration with the Maltese Archdiocese, the Ministry for Sustainable Development, The Environment and Climate Change; the Environmental Landscaping Consortium (ELC); the PARKS Department, as part of the Tree 4 U (34U) campaign; WasteServ Malta Ltd; European Green Week and several local environmental NGOs.

For more information visit valletta2018.org

PROGRAMME OF EVENTS DURING THE VALLETTA GREEN FESTIVAL

 St George’s Square

Exhibition tents by various NGOs including the China Cultural Centre in Malta, ELC, Garby & Tidy, Birdlife Malta, SharkLab Malta, Solar Cinema, Żibel, The Gaia Foundation and WasteServ. Flower carpet made of flower pots covering an area of more than 1000sqm.

Date: Thursday 3rd May – Sunday 6th May

Time: 9.30am onwards

Location: St George’s Square, Valletta

Xarulu’

Xarulu’ Acoustic Duo will be entertaining the crowd with their music, while moving from Parliament Square to St George’s Square

Date: Saturday 5th May

Time: 10.00am – Noon

Location: Starting at Parliament Square and moving towards St George’s Square

Solar Cinema

Solar Cinema will be screening a short film (produced during workshops held during the past few months) on a screen set up in front of the Grandmaster’s Palace

Date: Saturday 5th May

Time: 8.30pm

Location: St George’s Square

SITES OPEN TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC

Green Roof

In Malta, buildings cover one third of the Island, leaving greenery in the dirt track. Green roofs are one way to bring plants back to urban areas with loads of benefits. A green roof will be exhibited on the roof of the Office of the Attorney General to raise awareness and educate the public about the importance of greenery, and how they can implement green initiatives within their homes.

Date: Thursday 3rd May – Sunday 13th May

Time: 9.30am onwards

Location: Roof of the Main Guard, St George’s Square, Valletta

St Augustine’s Church & Gardens

St Augustine’s church, gardens, and the recently discovered foundations of the church will be open to the public 

Date: Friday 4th May – Sunday 6th May

Time: 9.30am – 12.30pm and 4pm – 7pm

Location: Old Bakery Street, Valletta (Entrance from Old Bakery Street or Zekka Street)

St Catherine’s Monastery & Gardens

The gardens of St Catherine’s Monastery will be open to the public

Date: Friday 4th May – Sunday 6th May

Time: 9.30am – 12.30 pm and 4pm – 7pm

Location: Republic Street, Valletta

The Basilica of St Dominic & Gardens

The gardens and refectory of the Basilica of St Dominic will be open to the public

Date: Friday 4th May – Sunday 6th May

Time: 9.30am – 12.30 pm and 4pm – 7pm

Location: St Dominic Street, Valletta

 The Archbishop’s Palace & Gardens

The Archbishop’s Palace gardens, ground floor and underground cisterns will be open to the public

Date: Friday 4th May – Sunday 6th May

Time: 9.30am – 12.30 pm and 4pm – 7pm

Location: Archbishop Street, Valletta

NGO TALKS AND WORKSHOPS IN ST GEORGE’S SQUARE

Birdlife Malta

Educational displays on wildlife habitats

Thursday 3rd May        12.00pm – 4.00pm

Friday 4th May             4.00pm – 8.00pm

Planting workshops and educational talks on helping create essential habitats for insects that rely on pollen to survive

Sunday 6th May           9.00am – 2.30pm (Planting workshop: 11.00am – Noon)

Birdlife Malta / SharkLab Malta

Educational talks discussing the ocean as a habitat, from the perspective of Birdlife Malta’s LIFE Arċipelagu Garnija project with SharkLab. The LIFE Arċipelagu Garnija project aims at securing the Maltese Islands for the Yelkouan Shearwater. SharkLab aims to increase knowledge about elasmobranchs, and better conservation and education in Malta and the Mediterranean.

Saturday 5th May        4.00pm – 8.00pm

SharkLab Malta

Educational displays on sharks, stingrays and skates

Thursday 3rd May        4.00pm – 8.00pm

Friday 4th May             Noon – 4.00pm

Solar Cinema

Stop motion film workshops for children, focusing on utilizing recycled materials for art

Thursday 3rd May        9.00am – Noon

Friday 4th May             9.00am – Noon

Saturday 5th May        9.00am – Noon

 Żibel / The Gaia Foundation

Interactive sign painting workshops, where signs will be painted on drift wood collected from clean-ups conducted by Żibel. These signs will then be placed in various locations around Malta, encouraging people to keep Malta clean.

Saturday 5th May        Noon – 4.00pm

 Educational displays by both NGOs. The Gaia Foundation will be focusing on indigenous and endemic plant ecology and invasive species and will be offering an introduction to their volunteer program. Żibel will be focusing on their recent experience and findings from both terrestrial and marine clean-ups, and the current issues with micro-plastics in the Mediterranean.

Sunday 6th May           2.30pm – 8.00pm