The Junior Eurovision Song Contest comes to Malta on Saturday 24 October. Sixteen countries, one night, and the whole thing at the Malta Fairs and Conventions Centre in Ta’ Qali.
It is the twenty fourth edition of the contest and the third time Malta has run it, after 2014 and 2016.
Malta did not win it
The adult contest goes to whoever won the year before. The junior one does not. France won in 2025, in Tbilisi, and the European Broadcasting Union then picks a host from the broadcasters who want it.
Malta put its hand up and got it, and PBS runs the production. Three times in a contest this size is a lot for a country of half a million people.
October is new
Junior Eurovision has always been a November or December event. This is the first time it has been held in October, and the reason given is logistics rather than anything to do with Malta.
It lands well here. The sea is still warm in late October, the summer crowds have gone, and rooms cost less than they did in August.
The sixteen countries
Albania, Armenia, Cyprus, France, Georgia, Ireland, Italy, Malta, Montenegro, the Netherlands, North Macedonia, Poland, Portugal, San Marino, Spain and Ukraine.
France comes as the holder, after Lou Deleuze won in Tbilisi in 2025 with Ce monde. Malta competes as the host.
The stage is built as a festa
The plan is to turn the hall into a Eurovision Festa Village, built around the Maltese village feast rather than a generic arena set. Maltese festa is on the UNESCO list of intangible cultural heritage, so the reference is a real one rather than decoration.
If you have never seen one, the feasts run from June to September and there are 134 of them across the two islands. The stage will be borrowing from those.
Where Ta’ Qali is
Ta’ Qali sits in the middle of the island, between Attard, Mosta and Rabat, on what used to be an airfield. The national stadium and the crafts village are on the same site.
There is nothing within walking distance of it. Buses run there from Valletta. On a night like this one the traffic and the parking will be harder than the distance.
Tickets
Nothing has been announced yet. When tickets go on sale they will come through PBS and the venue rather than a tour operator. Previous contests have sold them well before the day.
We will update this page when there is a date and a price. Anyone selling you a ticket before the official on-sale is selling you something else.
If you are coming for it
Late October is one of the better weeks to be here anyway. The sea holds its summer temperature into November and the queues at the temples are short. The heat that makes August hard has gone.
Two other things are on in the same stretch. The Rolex Middle Sea Race starts from the Grand Harbour on 17 October, which is free to watch from the Upper Barrakka. The Three Palaces Festival runs from 28 October to 1 November.
Book a room early. One night with sixteen visiting delegations does not fill the island, but it does fill the middle of it.
What else runs through the year is under annual events, and the feasts the stage is borrowing from are in the feast calendar.
