Slow Food Conference, Malta, 2016

This October 29th 2016 there will be the first Slow Food conference on Malta to be held at the Excelsior Hotel in Valletta, this will be to promote the Slow Food Mediterranean festival that is taking place on Malta in the spring of 2017. The conference at the Excelsior will be a one day event to include lunch and a dinner for guests who wish to take part in the evening, and it is primarily to raise awareness of the Slow Food organisation the festival and also the active group on Malta.
During the conference there will be a series of workshops, demonstrations, tastings and talks during the one day event and at the moment we have allowed for a maximum of 80 places available to both Slow Food members, supporters, producers and also embers of the public.
Two years ago we approached the Slow Food group on Malta with the idea of a dedicated Slow Food Mediterranean festival which would be held in a well known venue on the Island of Malta, the main aim was to bring artisan olive oil and food producers from Malta and Sicily together for the first time in this way.
The groups in their respective countries are all very passionate about the ethos and also the work of Slow Food as an organisation carries out throughout the globe and they believe that by holding this conference on Malta they will then showcase to the public what is best about artisan foods made by producers belonging to Slow Food both on Malta and in Sicily.
Slow Food Anglia will be playing an active part with the Maltese and Sicilian groups in both the organisation and planning of the conference and will also be helped by the small team at Festivaldelgusto based in Italy. We will be going with them to start the planning in July and we will then be visiting Malta several times over the next few months to organise and promote the conference before the event is held in October.

The three Slow Food groups have called the first event the Slow Food Mediterranean conference and they plan to have a minimum of twenty artisan producers who are members of Slow Food take part in the conference, and with only a maximum of eighty guests for this first event as we wish to give each producer as high a profile as possible by restricting numbers for the first year that it will be held on Malta.
The producers at the conference will include makers of high quality extra virgin olive oils, preserves, smoked meats and a wide variety of typical Italian and Maltese produce, there will also be input from local Maltese groups with a special emphasis on traditional Maltese food and culture.
The annual Maltese cultural music and heritage festival which takes place annually on the small Island of Gozo for several weeks from the end of October and we believe that the Slow Food event on Malta will tie in perfectly with this prestigious festival by promoting the artisan food and drink heritage of the Maltese and Sicilian Islands.
More details on the event including the workshops, talks and tastings, along with the producers taking part will be available on this blog and also on our Facebook page over the next couple of months as the plans for this exciting event unfold.