Updated 3.50pm - Added Buontempo statement

Sliema Local Council has cancelled this year’s edition of the Sliema Arts Festival, saying the Cultural Fund for Local Government events and activities was being issued too late.

"Having been chasing the Department for Local Government since last November, the scheme for funding is to be issued this month, making it impossible to plan such a festival which usually needs a minimum of six months of preparations, including coordination with local and foreign artists.

"This is very unfortunate, given that the Sliema Arts Festival has established itself as a prominent and visible stage for local artists to exhibit their works and music.
It is also very inappropriate on the part of the responsible funding board to assume that such large scale events can be planned within a few weeks’ time," the council said. 

It explained that the Cultural Fund for Local Government usually covered 30% of total expenses of the festival. Without such security of funding at the earliest stage, large scale professional events are impossible to organise.

The council said it hoped the festival would return next year.

'No funding guarantees for any council' - Buontempo

Local councils parliamentary secretary Stefan Buontempo told the Times of Malta that no council could expect a guarantee of funding.

“Decisions are taken on a year-by-year basis by a technical board on the basis of set criteria,” he said. “There is no political interference in that process.”

Dr Buontempo said a reform in the cultural funding programme announced today – which will allow councils to apply for projects over a three-year period – would prevent problems such as those encountered by the festival.

He insisted, however, that the funding board had been in constant contact with the Sliema local council in recent months and had given them regular updates on when the guidelines for the new programme would be announced.