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Is Malta the New Ibiza?

I’m sipping a beer watching a glorious sunset on the seafront at Café Del Mar. A DJ is blasting house music. My shell necklace glints defiantly in the sunlight. No, I’m not in dance music Mecca Ibiza, but Malta – and here, my beer is way under €16.

This is Elrow Island festival, an Ibiza club night institution making its Malta debut with a four-day bonanza of boat parties, beach parties and club parties, starting with a sunset pool extravaganza at Malta’s very own Café Del Mar – a sister venue to the iconic Ibiza venue. My investigation is this: As Ibiza prices out partiers, could Malta be the new reigning party island champion?

Perhaps I need to go back a little. Maybe, like me, you’ve always associated Malta with folks who edge on the older side. My grandad visited for years, always reporting back on its magic, which naturally led me to believe it was a bit of a, well, naff old person’s place. But after a huge festival-focused rebrand in recent years, I’m here to find out whether its grandparent identity is on the out.

Located in the heart of the Mediterranean, less than a two-hour ferry from Sicily, Malta has long-attracted global audiences with its rich history and UNESCO World Heritage sites, its crystal-clear waters and charming architecture. Flights are a bargain, locals friendly and there’s more than 300 days of sunshine a year – one of the highest in Europe.

You could say its festival identity and youngster focus started in 2014 with the launch of Annie Mac’s Lost and Found festival. “When we came into the industry over 25 years ago, Malta was already hosting top talent from DJs to live performances, but this was mainly targeted to local audiences,” says Trevor Camilleri, a director of 356 Entertainment which hosts Elrow. “Lost and Found became an annual festival which then encouraged us to host two annual festivals and so forth,” adds director Nicholas Spiteri. “This year, we successfully hosted 14 festivals and are looking at having over 20 in 2025.”

Such a huge tourism surge in 2023 – a whopping 58 percent increase – led travel trend forecaster Globetrender to name Malta as a rising star destination in their 2024 Travel Trends Report. And 356 Entertainment takes centre stage in Malta’s festival tourism rise: In 2023 alone, it brought in 56,000 visitors across its festival season, meaning €51.8million of economic impact. A staggering 80 percent of tourists visiting Malta for music events attended ones produced by 356 Entertainment, too, which includes festivals Defected, SummerDaze and DLT. It makes sense then, that (contrary to stereotypes) tourists are getting younger – the National Statistics Office recently announced that 73 percent of tourists in July 2024 were under 44.

As for the Ibiza comparison, I’ve been three times now, and the magic was undeniable, yes. But so was the absolutely staggering cost at every turn: Club entries €50 to over €100; taxis across the island often €60; in clubs you’ll pay €16 for beer, €21 for single mixers and €12 for bottles of water. It can’t help but make you feel fed up. Malta, on the other hand, is much more reasonably priced and famously beautiful, too. It even has its own Formentera in the form of Gozo, a small island just off the north, a paradise off a paradise. So, how does it hold up in the partying stakes?

Elrow’s official opening party – and every evening thereafter – was in open-air club Uno, one of Malta’s biggest and best. My friend and I didn’t know a single DJ on the line-up, yet it was some of the most fun music I’ve ever heard out – upbeat, energetic house remixes (with words!) that you could actually have fun to after just a drink or two, unlike Ibiza. At regular intervals, jets of smoke and inflatables were shot directly into the crowd (your face), and actors milled around the dance-floor dressed up in all sorts of strange, fluorescent costumes. It was utter chaos, really, but in a pretty delightful way.

The crowd seemed to be very up for the whole thing, there was no hanging back trying to look cool. OK, I did spot someone shuffling (Gen Z-ers, maybe Google this) but I actually appreciated his spirit. Most of the parity goers seemed to be Europeans in their mid 20s to 30s – lots of Italians – and the few Brits we spotted were mostly Ushuaia, Ibiza types. Danny, a 24-year-old electrician from Kent, said he felt like the place was full of English people, though. He’s been to over five Elrow parties over the years and thought this Malta takeover was one of the best.

“The fact that all the stages were outdoors really made the festival,” says Danny. “In Ibiza, Elrow is in Amnesia, which is indoors, and it’s just so unbearably hot a lot of the time.” This touches on an important win for Malta, given most of Ibiza’s clubs are indoors, something that has always seemed a shame to me. For Danny, the beach party was the best part of the weekend – there was a festival stage facing the sunset and you could dance either on the sand or in the actual sea, next to floating tables for your drinks – and he thought the boat party was “sick”. Does Danny think Malta genuinely rivals the White Isle, then? “Not just yet, but it’s getting there,” he says. “Either way, I’m more likely to come back here because Ibiza just isn’t affordable anymore unless you save up for, like, an entire year.”

As well as the price point, the scenery in Malta is truly breath-taking – dare I say, more so than Ibiza? It’s no wonder it’s the backdrop for movies from the new Gladiator to Jurassic World, and, maybe most famously, tv series Game of Thrones. And the sunsets, well. A short 15 minutes and €12 euro ride away from our hotel – AX ODYCY in St. Paul’s Bay on the northeast coast – we discovered one of the most magical coves and sunset spots I’ve ever visited. Exceeding favourites from Mallorca to Columbia, Ghajn Tuffieha Bay (also known as Riviera Beach) was such a majestic natural beauty it felt like our own The Beach discovery. The sunset from the sandy beach was one thing, but a short hike up a hill gave way to a view so stunning, peaceful and Santorini-esque, it was hard to fathom – clay cliffs leading to another bay that looked like an alien crater, a big rock formation reaching out to sea which you could follow a trail through. The one restaurant on Riviera Beach was Singita, a place reminiscent of Ibiza’s El Silencio in southwest coast cove Cala Molí, but Singita was far less extortionate and a lot more authentically laid-back.

It was here I truly felt the magic of Malta – and spending a few days in capital city Valletta for some post-festival recovery cemented it further. A European Capital of Culture in 2018, Valletta has dynamism and culture far beyond that of Ibiza Town. There’s the cathedral that rivals Rome’s Sistine Chapel (on the inside), baroque architecture at every turn, gondola-style boat taxis, and megalithic temples older than the pyramids. The LGBTQ+ scene is booming, too – the city hosts its own EuroPride and, for the eighth year in a row, Malta occupies the number one spot on the Rainbow Europe Map, which ranks countries for LGBTQ+ people.

There’s bustle on every corner, but Hanna Briffa, director and designer of Valletta Vintage apartments, where we stayed, said it hasn’t always been this way. “Valletta used to be full of business types, just four years ago there was no nightlife” she says, as we sit outside a coffee shop that wouldn’t look out of place in Hackney. “But since Covid, there’s been a huge boom of restaurants and bars.” Now there’s glitzy cocktail bars next to high-glamour sushi restaurants like Aki, which serves refined Japanese dishes as memorable as Ibiza’s much-loved Izakaya. Even star chef Simon Rogan (of L’Enclume fame) has his own two Michelin star restaurant with ION Harbour, serving a tasting menu which taps local produce for an experimental Mediterranean bonanza. All of these places were a short walk from our apartment in the heart of the Valletta, by St. Elmo’s Bay, which truly was the most stylish space I’ve encountered – a 17th century townhouse with original architectural features, artwork from local artists, a curated mix of contemporary and mid-century furniture, even its own Spotify playlist. Sure, there’s no pool and the weather is hot, so, for this, hotels are your best bet – we ventured to boutique hotel Cugó Gran Macina, who’s rooftop pool overlooks the tranquil harbour, and Iniala Harbour House spa.

All in all, Valletta – and Malta generally – truly feels like a mix of so many places: You’re in Greece when sipping drinks sat down on a narrow street of steps, Italy when you’re chowing down on “nana’s famous ravioli” at the famed Café Jubilee, Mallorca when you’re sunbathing on the rocks at St. Peter’s Pool. Then there are the street signs that look like they’re in Arabic (Maltese, actually) and the red London phone boxes dotted everywhere.

It’s no surprise to me, now, why Malta is the ninth most Googled travel destination. And as for the Ibiza comparison, Malta will likely never have that “anything is possible” feeling you get when you step out of Ibiza Airport, an energy steeped in clubbing legend – and maybe it doesn’t need to. “We’re not trying to be another Ibiza,” says 356 Entertainment director Gerry Debono. And thank God, because I don’t think our bank balances could hack it.

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