Notte Bianca is on Saturday 3 October. Valletta stays open through the night and everything on the programme is free.
It is the one evening of the year when buildings that normally charge admission, or that are normally shut altogether, open their doors for nothing.
What opens
- Museums and palaces, free, usually until around two in the morning.
- Churches and chapels that are otherwise locked outside service times.
- Government buildings and courtyards not normally open to the public.
- Streets and squares given over to music, dance and street performance.
The programme comes out in September. It runs to dozens of venues across the city and there is no way to see all of it.
Pick three or four and walk between them. Valletta is twenty minutes end to end, so the walking is not the problem.
Getting in and out
Do not drive. Valletta is small, the car parks fill by early evening and several streets close to traffic for the night.
Buses run extra late services, and the harbour ferries from Sliema and the Three Cities extend their hours.
Check the last crossing before you rely on it. The queue at the ferry after midnight is long.
Park at MCP or Floriana and walk in through City Gate if you must bring a car.
What the night is like
Busy. Tens of thousands of people come, and the main streets are shoulder to shoulder between about nine and midnight.
The side streets are calmer and the queues at the smaller venues are shorter.
The big museums have the longest waits early on and empty out after midnight.
Go late if you want to see inside somewhere properly. Go early if you came for the street performance.
Bars and restaurants stay open late and are full. Eat before you come or eat very late.
If you have children
The early part of the evening is aimed at families and there is usually a programme for them.
After about ten it becomes a late night crowd.
The harbour ferry back to Sliema at nine is an easy way to end it with tired children.
What else is on that month
October 2026 is unusually full, with the Middle Sea Race, Junior Eurovision and the Three Palaces Festival all following.
Notte Bianca is the first of them and the only one that costs nothing.
Where to check
Festivals Malta publishes the programme and the map.
Everything is on the Notte Bianca page and the events calendar.
