The Valletta Guitar Festival runs from Thursday 10 to Saturday 12 September.
It is three days of guitar music in Valletta, run by Festivals Malta.
It is the first edition, run by Festivals Malta under the artistic director Simon Schembri.
Three concerts across three nights, moving between classical, tango, gypsy swing, Brazilian guitar and jazz.
What a night looks like
- Thursday 10 September, 19:30, Teatru Manoel. The opening night: tango, gypsy swing, Brazilian guitar, a classical quartet and jazz.
- Friday 11 September, 20:00, Teatru Manoel. Encounters with the Latin Guitar, with the Brazilian guitarist Yamandu Costa.
- Saturday 12 September, 21:00, Pjazza Teatru Rjal. The Final Symphonic Concert: Albéniz, Bizet, Chabrier, Rodrigo and Ravel’s Boléro.
The closing night is outdoors, in the open-air theatre built inside the ruins of the old Royal Opera House.
Evening concerts are the main event and are ticketed.
They are held in Valletta venues rather than in one hall, so check which building your concert is in when you book.
Most start at around 20:00 and run to an hour and a half with an interval.
Daytime sessions are usually masterclasses and workshops.
Some of these are free to sit in on, which is the cheapest way to see the visiting players up close.
Tickets
Festivals Malta sells the tickets and publishes the full programme a few weeks before.
Prices for its festivals normally run from about €10 to €25 a concert.
Valletta venues are small. If you are going for a particular player, book rather than turning up.
Seating is usually unreserved in the smaller rooms, so arrive twenty minutes early if the seat matters.
Getting there and back
Valletta is easy to reach by bus and by the harbour ferries from Sliema and the Three Cities.
Concerts finish late and the last ferry goes earlier than you would like. Check the return before you settle in.
Buses run later than the ferries, and there are night routes from Valletta on Friday and Saturday.
Driving in costs money on weekdays under the CVA charge, and parking near the gate fills up. The ferry is simpler.
Valletta in September
Evenings are warm and dry, which is why so much of the cultural calendar sits in this month.
The city stays open late around the festival, and the restaurants on Strait Street and Merchants Street take bookings until eleven.
It is still hot enough at midday that the daytime sessions in a cool building are the pleasant option.
What else is on that month
September is a busy month here.
The Grand Harbour regatta is on the 8th, fifteen village feasts are still to come, and the sea is at its warmest of the year.
Late September is also when the heat finally breaks, which makes the second half of the month the better fortnight for walking.
Everything with a confirmed date is on the events calendar.
