Culture, Feasts & Events 

The festival season in Gozo starts in May, though it is in summer that most local feasts take place. Practically, every week during summer, a festa dedicated to a patron saint in a locality around Gozo is being held. Showing that this island is passionate about religious celebrations and traditions, and each locality strives to have the best feast.
The Victoria International Arts Festival is a feast for the senses for those who watch out for cultural events. For five weeks every year in June/July, Victoria joins the world with an international composition of artists and ensembles who annually leave a lasting imprint on the cultural soul of the island. It is an unmissable event for music lovers. The Jazz festival is held annually at Mgarr harbour to the Qala International Folk Festival. Then, as the day cools down into the long summer nights, there is likely to be a square or two lit up with an event to be enjoyed under the stars.

Easter Sunday is a true celebration. The joyful peeling of bells and band marches accompany several processions with the risen Christ. People share the traditional “Figolli” they would have prepared days before. Spring is also about music, with the full calendar of the Gaulitana Music Festival, an established event for music and culture lovers. The festival features a series of concerts set against the backdrop of several beautiful locations around Gozo.

November also sees the staging of the Festival Mediterranea, which like the operas, has become an established event in Gozo’s cultural calendar. The festival is organised annually by the Astra Theatre in Victoria. The festival uncovers Gozo’s facets, including classical and symphonic music, archaeology, history, folklore and cuisine. As a showpiece by its organisers, “Festival Mediterranea unveils Gozo as a mosaic of Mediterranean civilisation, heritage and art. It is indeed a showpiece of a hundred things of our own, an opportunity for a break from the routine of conventional life, a chance to immerse oneself in the mellow world of Gozo’s Autumn and explore and live the cultural tradition; of its 7000 years of history.”

Villages prepare live cribs and live reenactments of the nativity scene. A whole area in Għajnsielem is transformed to re-create the nativity scene, immersed in the core of a Gozitan village. Long-forgotten customs and traditions are again re-lived by those attending this event.
Carnival in February is pure fun. During these celebrations, Gozitans shed their customary religiosity centred around the celebrations of their feasts. Instead, every village has its twist on a feast that breaks the winter quiet. The organised carnivals in Victoria, Nadur and Xagħra, among other localities, show off carnival dances, hilarious sketches, costumes, floats, and the traditional “Kukkanja”. Then there is the notorious, spontaneous Carnival held in Nadur, which stands out for its creativity without limits.
Today, participation in the Nadur carnival has grown so much that people from all over the island flock for the three days of fun, colours and sounds where anyone can be anyone they want in disguise.
One could be easily carried away by the party atmosphere of costumes, dance and music but most of all by sheer imagination and creativity. Carnival has grown significantly in Gozo in the past two decades, becoming a major annual festival that attracts visitors to the island looking for a unique, fun experience. Its atypical and extreme nature has contributed to its success and pulled bigger crowds. In addition, Carnival in the villages offers a glimpse of Gozo’s diverse culture, distinctly traceable to each locality.