The show must go on:

All week: Żigużajg – various locations around Valletta

This week, get your kids out and moving – yes, even after school, with Żigużajg, the annual arts festival for children and young people. Aerial dance performance Strange Feathers will be taking place at Spazju Kreattiv’s theatre in the round, with Fidget Feed Aerial Dance Theatre heading to Malta from Ireland to astound audiences with their mid-air capers. But, if you and your family only have time to indulge at the weekend, then head to the Manoel Theatre for Amahl and the Night Visitors, also part of the festival’s line-up, which tells the story of a little shepherd boy who offers his crutch to Christ. Tickets can be bought from here.

Saturday, 24 November from 11am – 1.30pm: MPO International Tour, Malta Concert - Mediterranean Conference Centre

The Malta Philharmonic Orchestra is going on tour and the Malta leg of the journey lands this Saturday. The concert will open with Rebbieħa, a symphonic poem written by the late Gozitan composer Joseph Vella, a choice which will be appreciated by many music lovers on the island. It will be followed by Alexey Shor’s Travel Notebook and Dmitri Shostakovich’s cheerful Symphony No. 5 in D minor – compositions which put the MPO’s immense skill to good use.

It’s a kind of magic:

Wednesday, 21 November from 6pm – 8pm: Jim Crace, Public Reading and Book Signing - Arts Lecture Theatre, University of Malta

Recent years have seen distinguished writers and filmmakers head to Malta, giving lectures, talks and imparting knowledge we have been blessed to receive. This week, the University of Malta has a treat in store with a public reading and book signing by Jim Crace, acclaimed author of Quarantine (1997), Being Dead (1999) and Harvest (2013). He is the winner of a string of prestigious prizes, including the Windham-Campbell Literature Prize, the Whitbread Award and the James Black Tait Memorial Prize and will be launching his new book, The Melody at this week’s event. The event is open to the public. 

Thursday, 22 November from 7.30pm & Saturday 24 November from 8.30pm: Dogman – Spazju Kreattiv; Tuesday, 20 November from 10.30pm: The Experience - The Cinema Bar by Citylights, Valletta

Magic on the big screen is in store this week with Matteo Garrone’s Dogman screening once again at Spazju Kreattiv, a tale of how easy it is for every man to get dragged into the seedy underworld of organised crime, and the compromises some of us end up making. Garrone’s newest foray into cinema is not such a far cry from Abbas Kiarostami’s The Experience, an Iranian film about a teenager who gets a job to be nearer his crush, which screenings at the Cinema Bar by Citylights on Tuesday. Both films show a masterful handling of film language in the creation of an experience hard to forget.  

Friends will be friends:

Friday, 23 November from 7.15pm – 10.15pm: Social Cooking Class - Selmun, Mellieha; Saturday, 24 November from 10pm – 4am: 25 Years of Joseph Armani - The Club House, Gianpula Village, Rabat

Grab your best pals and head outside this weekend (even if you’re already all wrapped up at home, dressing gown tightly wound around you). You can show off your cooking skills on Friday with a cooking class, focusing on the cuisine of India, being organised by That Indian Food Guy in Selmun, Mellieha. If you know your kormas from your tikka masalas, you might be set to impress those who will bump a meal from you in the future. But, put down those pots and pans on Saturday night to truly let your hair down with Malta’s biggest DJ export, Joseph Armani hitting the decks at The Club House in Gianpula Village in Rabat.