Malta & Gozo Events This Week: Notte Bianca, Gozo Folk Nights & 9 More Local Must-Dos (22-28 Sept)

What’s on in Malta and Gozo this week: September 22 to 28, 2025
By Hot Malta staff

Valletta’s Republic Street smells of freshly-ground coffee and ħobż biż-żejt this Monday morning, but by sunset the scent will shift to warm honey and almonds – the first trays of imqaret being fried for Notte Bianca. The capital’s biggest night-arts festival marks the unofficial start of Malta’s cultural season, and 2025’s edition (Saturday 27 September) is the first to be fully funded by the new “Creative Communities” lottery levy. Expect 120 pop-up stages, a drone-lit kwadriglia over the Grand Harbour, and – in a nod to our carbon-neutral pledge – silent-disco headphones instead of deafening speakers outside Parliament. Mayor Alexei Dingli says the switch saves 4.3 tonnes of CO₂, roughly the equivalent of planting 200 carob trees in Żejtun.

Across the water in Gozo, Victoria’s Citadel is also getting a makeover. From Tuesday 23 September the inner keep hosts “Kant u Kitarra: Għanafest Minus the Summer Sweat”, a four-night acoustic spin-off that moves the island’s beloved folk festival to the milder shoulder season. Tickets are capped at 300 per evening, half reserved for Gozitan ID cardholders at €5 a pop. The pricing is deliberate: Culture Minister Owen Bonnici told Hot Malta the subsidy is “a thank-you to Gozitans who carried the tourism load during the overcrowded July meltdown”. Local band It-Tuffieħa Plan will debut songs in Gozitan dialect – expect lyrics about the new Gozo Channel ferry timetable and the price of rabbit feed.

If your taste buds crave tradition, head to Siġġiewi on Thursday 25 September for the village’s first “Festa tal-Borża ta’ Ħobż”. Bakers from nine local band clubs will compete to stuff the tastiest ftira with seasonal ingredients: pickled ġbejniet, prickly-pear jam and – in a controversial twist – fermented ġulepp tal-ħarrub. Judges include 82-year-old Nannu Ċikku, who still bakes in a wood-fired oven built by his father in 1957. The winning recipe becomes Siġġiewi’s official 2026 festa sandwich, with 10 cent from every sale going to the community food-bank.

Environmentalists, meanwhile, will be at Ħondoq ir-Rummien on Friday 26 September for the annual “Swim for Clean Seas”, now in its tenth year. This year’s 2-km fundraiser supports the expansion of the existing reef-ball project off Qala; organisers hope to drop 80 new limestone modules to regenerate posidonia meadows. Registration is free if you bring 2 kg of sorted plastic waste – last year participants collected 1.4 tonnes, the equivalent of 70,000 bottle caps. Gozo Regional Council has pledged to match every kilometre swum with a €10 donation to local diving schools for youth scholarships.

Back in Malta, the University of Malta’s Valletta campus opens its doors on Sunday 28 September for “Science in the City – After Hours”, a adults-only spin on the normally family-friendly festival. From 18:00 till midnight, researchers will demonstrate how AI is being trained to predict flash-flooding in Msida using historical Carnival weather data. Craft-beer start-up Lord Chambray will unveil a limited-edition IPA brewed with rooftop hops grown atop the new ITS campus in St Julian’s – only 500 bottles, €6 each, proceeds to the Malta Neurodiversity Association.

Not everything is high-brow. Marsascala’s waterfront transforms into an open-air cinema on Wednesday 24 September for “Jaws on the Jetty”, part of a national campaign to re-claim village cores after dark. Mayor Mario Calleja expects 2,000 viewers, many arriving on the newly launched night-bus route that loops the southern harbours until 02:00. Local fishermen have volunteered as ushers; in return the council has waived mooring fees for October.

By the time the week ends, more than 50,000 people – roughly one in ten residents – will have taken part in at least one event. In a country where summer tourism often feels like it happens to us rather than with us, September’s calendar is increasingly shaped by locals for locals. The knock-on effect is tangible: cafés in Gozo report 30 % higher weekday revenue than the same week in 2019, while Valletta shopkeepers’ association says Notte Bianca boosts October foot-traffic by 18 %. As the last imqaret tray is cleared and the Citadel’s lights dim, the message is clear – Malta’s cultural heartbeat is strongest when it keeps time with its own people.