Ghanafest returns to ‘intimate’ venue with international outlook

Ghanafest returns to Argotti Gardens for a three-day festival of local and international folk music, this time in collaboration with CHOGM

Based in Catania, Sicily, Jali Diabate is a youthful, tenacious kora musician
Based in Catania, Sicily, Jali Diabate is a youthful, tenacious kora musician
Rooted in Scottish folk traditions, Rura have been renowned for their gritty, melodic and emotive music
Rooted in Scottish folk traditions, Rura have been renowned for their gritty, melodic and emotive music
Sitar Power Trio, combining classical Indian sitar with funk, calypso, jazz and dance rhythms
Sitar Power Trio, combining classical Indian sitar with funk, calypso, jazz and dance rhythms

This year’s edition of Għanafest, Malta’s own folk music festival, aims to continue capitalizing on the festival’s growing success, incorporating both local and international performers at the intimate venue of Argotti Gardens in Floriana.

This year’s edition will be different from previous editions since it will be supported by the Malta CHOGM Task Force in anticipation of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) which will be held this November.

Taking place over June 12-14, Maltese għana will feature prominently, with many veteran acts delivering heartfelt, sometimes spontaneous folk songs in various different styles. Among them will be the collaboration of Rita Pace/Yvette Buhagiar with guitarist Evan Plumpton, and Corazon's teaming up with Walter Vella and Domenic Galea.

Flamenco dancing, a fast growing popular style will also feature thanks to the Allegria Dance Company and there will also be lectures and workshops from the performers, as well as a children's workshop on folk music.  Tberfil, the decorative painted lettering often found on old buses, will again feature in this workshop thanks to its overwhelming success in recent years.

The music will feature instruments that are indeed associated with Commonwealth countries and which over the years have also gained considerable popularity thanks to their exposure in Britain, the cradle of popular music and indeed various world music programmes, aired by the BBC World Service.

Jali Diabate, who comes from a renowned family of musicians will be displaying his expertise on the kora, the traditional 21-string West African harp, popular all across the continent. Besides France, where a considerable number of musicians from former colonies have migrated and performed, the kora has also been adopted by some young British musicians like Josh Doughty.

Based in Catania, Sicily, Jali Diabate is a youthful, tenacious kora musician who has contributed significantly to preserving kora playing in the traditional Mandinka ethnic style, but he also did a lot towards charting a future through his compositions and eclectic performances featuring African and Italian musicians. 

The sitar, an ancient Indian instrument got its big break in pop music thanks to The Beatles and The Rolling Stones back in the 1960s and was used extensively by many other rock bands thereafter, such as Fleetwood Mac and Led Zeppelin among others. Ashwin Batish was certainly aware of all these happenings with this majestic influence, not least in California, where he is based, and from where so many sitar-influenced psychedelic bands originated some 50 years ago.

Batish also comes from a popular music family: his father is the legendary Bollywood singer and music director Pandit Shiv Dayal Bashir. Ashwin Batish however, has also carved his own niche with his unique sitar playing and his songs ‘Bombay Boogie’ ‘Sitar Magic’, and ‘India Beat’ sold successfully in India. His ways and means of combining classical Indian sitar with funk, calypso, jazz and dance rhythms will be a high point in this year’s Għanafest.

Celtic music will be represented for the first time in Għanafest thanks to Rura.

Rooted in Scottish folk traditions, this multi-award winning, Highlands-based band have been renowned for their gritty, melodic and emotive music. Their haunting, jagged music shows a new angle to Scottish folk, retaining its fiercely independent and assertive delivery which has made it unique and outstanding. They do so thanks to a powerhouse mix of highland pipes, whistle, flute, fiddle and bodhran playing.

There will also be various talks and presentations on Maltese folk instruments like the flejguta (Maltese flute), żafżafa (Maltese friction drum) and the żaqq (Maltese bagpipes).

Despite its increasing popularity, the festival is still intimate enough for its details to be curated lovingly. Even the food is carefully picked to a theme: no commercial entities are in sight: you are likelier to find pastizzi, imqaret and all things traditionally Maltese, making this festival – devoted to music, food and crafts – much more than just a series of concerts. 

Ghanafest – Malta Mediterranean Folk Music Festival 2015 is organised by Arts Council Malta and supported by the Ministry for Justice, Culture and Local Government, CHOGM Malta 2015, The Phoenicia Hotel, MSV Life and TVM. The Festival will be held on June 12-14 at 19:00, at Argotti Gardens, Floriana, within walking distance from Valletta. Tickets: €3 per night or €7 for a three-day block ticket available at the door. Parking available at the Floriana Boy Scouts headquarters, right next to the venue. For more information, log on to: www.maltafolkmusicfestival.org