The festival was a good opportunity for Frits Lintmeijer (vice mayor for culture and international affairs) to visit Malta. He was accompanied by Peter de Haan and Bram Buijze (responsible for the bidbook process for Utrecht 2018), Hans and Gertrud. In a tightly scheduled programme they were fully immersed in Malta! Along the way the existing good contacts were strengthened and new ideas for cooperation were launched. A connection with a lot of potential and future.
Off course the process for Utrecht 2018 and Valletta 2018 formed the red wire in the meetings with Mario de Marco, Alexiei Dingli, David Felice and many others. With the Valletta 2018 team they shared experiences on the process and activities in that matter. Fortresses and their re-use already is a subject in which several organisations in Malta and Utrecht cooperate. Very interesting was the tour round St Elmo and St Angelo by Pierre Bonello and Martin Spiteri of Heritage Malta. The visit to the Hypogeum was in one word considered impressive, as well as the sight of the Caravaggio paintings at St John's Co-Cathedral.
Impressive was also the interest in tango. Hans Sakkers connected 10 dancers from Utrecht to tango dancers in Malta. During several milonga's tango dancers shared their passion, at Il Forn, Hotel Phoenicia and during the festival. The dancers also exchanged the typical dance music.
At the National Museum of Fine Arts the Van Doorn/Van Vugt Quartet formed the contribution to the festival in a close cooperation with the museum. For not fairly the amount of audience they hoped for, but with several people returning for more Ineke, Marc, Behsat and Steven performed with a cross over of jazz and world music. Many people who strolled through the museum rooms enjoyed the music.
The night before the festival Robert Gabriëlse, Dutch ambassador organised a welcome party for the delegation in his residence. With the company of interesting representatives from the cultural life of Malta and an extra music performance it surely was a pleasant evening.
