Malta's International Beer Festival is featured in many tourism programs under different names, which also mention international cuisine and music. This event has only one real name - the Farsons Great Beer Festiva. The festival has been held since 1981, during this time it has changed its location more than once, has grown significantly in scale, but has invariably remained a free, reckless holiday for everyone.
The very first Maltese beer festival was held in the city of Mriela, in the same place where the factory of the Farsons brewery is located. Over the years, the scale of the event increased so much that it had to be transferred to the Maltese National Park Ta Ali, which is located near the famous resort mecca - Valletta. The Farsons Festival is held annually, from the last week of July to the end of the first week of August. This holiday is an evening event, so the park gates are open for guests only from 8 pm.
The great Farsons beer festival hosts the most famous brands. Regular exhibitors include Carlsberg, Budweiser, Guinness, Corona, John Smiths, Beck's and Kilkenny, as well as the host plant itself with its popular Cisk and Hopleaf beers. But the holiday is popular not only with beer lovers. In the open air, on two stages at the same time, nightly performances of various musical groups are held, dishes of national cuisine are served in the pavilions, artists and artisans sell souvenirs. What can you eat at the festival, which is also called the festival of international cuisine? Usually there are at least ten pavilions in the park. This is El Mehicano serving hot Mexican food, Topkapi serving Turkish delicacies, New York Best serving hot pizza. Chinese cuisine awaits you in the Pagoda pavilion, under the sign of BR Guest - French baguettes and pies, Dew Fresh will serve hot dogs and hamburgers, KFC - traditional southern-style chicken, and at Golden Harvest you can enjoy American donuts - donuts, thin pancakes - crepes - with a variety of fillings - served in the Barcode pavilion.
In order for a Russian to get to this holiday, first of all, he needs to get a visa. Unfortunately, the time when it was possible to do this under a simplified scheme right at the arrival airport has passed - since November 1, 2007, the island state of Malta joined the Schengen Agreement. You can apply to the visa centers of the Republic of Malta in the cities of Moscow, St. Petersburg, Vladivostok, Yekaterinburg, Irkutsk, as well as in Kazan, Kaliningrad, Krasnodar, Krasnoyarsk, Rostov-on-Don. It is possible to obtain a Maltese visa in Samara, Sochi, Nizhny Novgorod, Novosibirsk, Ufa and Khabarovsk. If you already have a valid "Schengen", you can safely embark on a journey.
Only one airline, Air Malta, operates direct flights to Malta, but many carriers fly there with intermediate stops in various European cities. You can book air tickets, and at the same time the places in the hotel on your own, or you can entrust the organization of the trip to the travel agency. On the eve of the festival, many companies offer to take care of the organization of this trip. If you want to do it yourself, then remember that the Ta'Qali National Park is located in the center of the island of Malta, near the cities of Valletta and Bugibba.
There are three buses from Valletta to Ta Ali - 51, 52, 53, all three parks have no final stop. There is one from Bugibba, number 86. In 2012, the organizer of the festival, the Farsons brewery and the bus company Arriva Malta, teamed up and launched shuttle services from Valletta and Bugibba to the park and back for the duration of the festival. The cost of one ticket is only 2 and a half euros.
