Dozens of brightly coloured kites fluttered in the breeze over the Għarb countryside on Sunday as the Gozitan village held its second International Kite Festival.

Professional kite masters from several countries took part, as did amateurs, displaying their creations near the historic San Dimitri chapel at the extreme north of the Maltese islands. Some were very creative, producing giant kites showing popular cartoon characters.

The festival started with a parade in Gharb's streets, with the main road being decorated with hundreds of colourful kites, drawing many local and foreign tourists, and some international media coverage, including Chinese TV (above).

The festival was organised by Għarb local council.

Nature Trust Malta in a statement regretted that the logistics for the event were disorganized and based on a car-dependent mentality.  

"Although a shuttle service was provided – cars still kept on driving to San Dimitri with wardens along the way helping to direct traffic to a temporary, inadequate, car park close to San Dimitri chapel.

"The cars had to tackle narrow country lanes with many families and pushchairs dangerously sharing the same lanes. Many cars were also parked along these country lanes. What was only a 15-minute walk from Gharb centre to the site – ended up in a traffic-people mayhem because cars were still allowed to drive up to San Dimitri site. And then to get out they had to drive onwards towards Wied il-Mielah and to Gharb again," the NGO said.   

The NGO said that it hoped that in future, Eco-Gozo and Għarb encourage families to walk and enjoy the countryside, rather than use cars.