EUROPE MALTA DESTINATIONS


started Get the party


Malta is embracing the music


scene with its annual Isle of MTV festival, finds Ronan O’Shea


T


here’s a palpable air of youth in Valletta this evening, as thousands of people dance along to a song by British DJ Sigala that I’m neither cool enough nor young enough to recognise. The sun is descending over


St Publius Parish Church – the backdrop to the town’s famous il-Fosos (The Granaries) Square, a storied meeting place that once hosted Pope John Paul II – and the swelling summer crowd in


front of me is emblematic of the direction in which Malta is heading.


I’m on the island for the Isle of MTV Music Week. Once a single- evening event, it has evolved into a week-long affair, though the concert in The Granaries remains the big draw with acts such as Paloma Faith, Ella Eyre, Sigala and Hailee Steinfeld joined by Jason Derulo, the headliner for 2018. Speaking to me on a balmy Wednesday afternoon at the


Radisson Blu hotel, it’s Derulo who sums up how many feel about Malta these days. “It’s a paradise that a lot of people don’t know about,” he says. “When I said I was going to Malta a lot of people were like, ‘where is that?’. It’s a beautiful place surrounded by water. I’m a beach baby so anywhere I can get some water, I’m there – count me in.”


Derulo has performed at the show before and came back for


this year’s event, thanks to his love of the island.


 YOUNG AT HEART While the star’s fellow Americans might not be familiar with Malta, the same can’t be said for Britain, which remains the island’s main tourism market with a visitor share of 26.2%. However, one of the big changes, engendered in part thanks to events such as Isle of MTV, is the shift in the


9 May 2019travelweekly.co.uk51


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