Malta organises itself into clubs. Almost every interest here has a society behind it, usually attached to a village, and most of them take anyone who asks.
For somebody who has just moved, joining one is the fastest way past the stage where you only know people from work.
Band clubs
Most villages have two, and they run a bar, a rehearsal room and a full calendar. They teach instruments to beginners of any age, usually free or close to it.
You do not have to play to join. A lot of members do the feast, the fireworks or the committee instead.
On the water
- Dive schools run courses year round and the sea stays diveable through winter.
- Sailing and rowing clubs sit around the harbours, and the regatta towns take on new rowers.
- Open water swimming groups meet at Sliema and St Julian’s most mornings, all year.
- Kayak and windsurf clubs work out of the northern bays.
On land
Football nurseries exist in every village and take children from about five. Adult leagues are informal and easy to join.
Walking groups run guided routes through the countryside from October to May, when the weather allows it. Several are free.
There are also running clubs, cycling groups, climbing at the inland cliffs and a rich amateur theatre scene in both English and Maltese.
Music, language and making things
Evening courses in Maltese are widely available and cheap, and they are one of the better rooms to meet people in.
Local councils run pottery, painting and craft classes out of village halls. They are advertised on the council’s own page and almost nowhere else.
How to find them
Start with the local council for the village you live in, then the parish, then the band clubs. Between the three of them they know everything happening locally.
Most of it is announced on social media and by poster on the church door, not on a website. Walking through the village square on a Sunday tells you more than searching does.
