The story
Festghana in Floriana
Festghana celebrates ghana, Malta's improvised traditional folk singing recognised by UNESCO as intangible cultural heritage, over four days each spring across Argotti Gardens in Floriana and Gnien l-Ghannejja in Zejtun. The festival pairs Maltese ghana singers and guitarists with international folk acts, closing with a communal ftira meal and a banda procession through Floriana's historic streets.
For generations before recorded music reached Malta's villages, an evening's entertainment in a bar or a farmyard often meant two or three men trading verses of ghana, each singer improvising a rhyming reply to the last, guitar keeping a steady rhythm underneath.