Local musicians to perform in a festival to substitute GMF

Local musicians will perform in an event during National Week that will replace the Gibraltar Music Festival this year.

The local-flavour festival is being organised by Gibraltar Cultural Services on behalf of the Ministry of Culture and in cooperation with the producers of Friday Night Live, the online musical collaboration that brought together Gibraltarian musicians during the lockdown.

The festival will take place on September 3 and is one of several events with a strong Gibraltarian flavour being planned for the autumn, aimed at delivering a diverse line-up of local talent and musical variety.

The annual Gibraltar Music Festival will not take place in 2021, in keeping with the Gibraltar Government’s cautious approach, given the uncertainty of how Covid-19 will develop and the amount of lead time required to plan an event on that scale.

GCS is working with Dion Mifsud and Nolan Frendo on what it described as “a culturally valuable project and event.”

“Friday Night Live has been an engaging platform during Covid-19 and the social lockdown, placing our musicians and artists frontline,” GCS said in a statement.

“It has brought together performers of all ages to entertain Gibraltar during a period of uncertainty and has demonstrated the uniqueness and strength of our community spirit.”

“The initiative saw special collaborations with former groups working together, and musicians joining forces to demonstrate their love and passion for creating.”

“Their talents also extended into areas of sound and vision with brilliant recordings produced and edited.”

“Hundreds took to their sofas every Friday to enjoy hours of local entertainment.”

GCS and the producers of Friday Night Live will now take this concept and create it into a live music festival performance so people can move from their sofas to a live venue.

“Friday Night Live is a great example of how music has the power to unite,” said the Minister for Culture, Dr John Cortes.

“With this face-to-face event, Covid-19 regulations permitting, it is important to recognise all those artists who gave of their time and talent to contribute to this innovative and worthy project.”

“We believe in supporting local talent and this is one of the mains aims of this event.”

The government cautioned that the event will be subject to Public Health advice at the time.