Għajnsielem Feast 2026: The Festa of Our Lady of Loreto
Għajnsielem celebrates Our Lady of Loreto on Sunday 30 August 2026, and it’s the feast every visitor to Gozo sees first, whether they mean to or not: the neo-Gothic spires of the Loreto church are the landmark that greets you as the ferry comes in to Mġarr. It’s a fitting arrangement, because this festa began at the harbour and has never really left it. The celebrations close out Gozo’s August in style, with two traditions you won’t find anywhere else on the island.
When Is the Għajnsielem Feast 2026?
The feast day is Sunday 30 August 2026, with the novena beginning around nine days earlier and the celebrations building to full volume over the final weekend. The full programme is published by the parish on its Facebook page, which, as usual for Gozo feasts, is the place for exact timings.
Għajnsielem actually celebrates twice a year. The feast of St Anthony of Padua at the Franciscan church opens Gozo’s festa season in late spring, but Our Lady of Loreto is the village’s own, and it’s the big one.
Top Tip: Our Lady of Loreto’s universal feast day is actually 10 December; like most Maltese villages, Għajnsielem moved its celebrations to summer, so the devotion arrives in August heat and at August volume.
Listen In: Radju Lauretana
Għajnsielem has its own feast radio station. Radju Lauretana broadcasts through the festa on 89.3FM and online at radjulauretana.com, with the main church functions and celebrations also streamed live on its Facebook page. Like Qala’s feast station up the road, it’s how the village’s emigrants follow the feast from abroad, and any programme changes are announced there first.
How the Feast Fortnight Unfolds
The parish has now published the full 2026 programme, and it’s a packed one, because the Loreto festa draws guest bands from across Gozo and Malta. The shape below is the official schedule, translated from the Maltese, with the events worth planning a visit around called out.
The novena opens around nine days out, each evening with its own congregation: anniversary couples, children and families, the English-speaking community, emigrants home for the feast. On the novena’s Sunday morning comes the ħruġ min-niċċa, when the statue of Our Lady is brought out from her niche to Marian hymns and placed beneath her throne in the church, followed by a children’s demonstration through the village with Għajnsielem’s own St Joseph Band, going strong since 1928, leading the way.
The final three days, the solemn tridu, are when the guest bands arrive and the square becomes a stage. Recent years have brought Sannat’s Santa Margerita Band, Xewkija’s Prekursur Band, Victoria’s Leone Band and even La Vallette from Valletta for joint marches and platform programmes. The nights end later and later, with the Sinfonia Del Sole shows: fire, light and pyrotechnics synchronised to music from the rooftops around the square, staged near midnight. One recent edition, Note da Cinema, set the flames to film music, which felt like Għajnsielem showing off specifically for us. The statue’s famous flight to her pedestal comes late on one of these nights.
On the eve, the relic of Our Lady is carried in solemn translation between the old church and the parish church, and the feast day itself brings the pontifical mass with full orchestra and choirs, the evening procession with the statue through the village to the rosary and the Litany of Loreto, and a synchronised fire and aerial fireworks display over the square as she re-enters the church. The ground and aerial fireworks are the work of the village’s own Għaqda Piroteknika 10 ta’ Diċembru, the pyrotechnics association named for Our Lady of Loreto’s December feast day.
The Published 2026 Programme
The novena opens on Thursday 20 August and runs each evening with rosary and Kurunella at 6pm and mass at 6.30pm, each night with its own congregation: the parish’s young people and the Għajnsielem FC players, the residents of Dar Arka, emigrants home for the feast. The dates below are the ones worth building a visit around.
Wednesday 19 August, 8pm: Festa Familja, an interactive family evening in Pjazza Madonna ta’ Loreto. Free, with sign-up at ghajnsielemparish.com/festafamilja.
Monday 24 August, 11.55pm: Trent’Anni di Successi, the Għaqda Armar Għajnsielem’s 30th anniversary show behind the church with JM2 Pyro Fireworks. Fire synchronised to music directed by Mro Frankie Debono and Mro Paul Rapa, with vocalist Jolene Samhan. Free.
Tuesday 25 August, 9pm: Beyond, A Musical Journey, the St Joseph Band’s concert in front of the band club. Free.
Wednesday 26 August, 9.30am: Tfal Flimkien Nifirħu, a morning of games for children starting inside the parish church, free with sign-up at ghajnsielemparish.com/tfal-flimkien-nifirhu. At 9pm, a Marian evening in the square with the parish choirs.
Thursday 27 August, 9pm: the St Joseph Band march from Triq Simirat, joined by the Duke of Connaught Band of Birkirkara. At 10.45pm the 1949 Wistin Camilleri Madonna is raised onto her pedestal in Pjazza Indipendenza, and at 11.30pm comes Notte di Colori, ground fireworks and synchronised lights beside the church by Sinfonia Del Sole.
Friday 28 August, 8.45pm: the demonstration with the statue of the Madonna tad-Dar sets off from Triq l-Imġarr, the St Joseph Band playing alongside San Bastjan of Ħal Qormi. At 11.15pm the statue makes her triumphal translation to the pedestal, carried into the square to the Ave Maria, followed by the Fiamme e Fiori display from the rooftops.
Saturday 29 August, 6.15pm: the solemn translation of the relic of Our Lady between the old church and the parish church, led by Mons. Frankie Bajada, with First Solemn Vespers at 7pm.
Saturday 29 August, 9pm: the feast eve march, the one to be in the village for. It sets off from Triq Ħamri and works through Pjazza Indipendenza to Pjazza Madonna ta’ Loreto, with the St Joseph Band joined by La Vallette of Valletta. The Santa Margerita Band of Sannat play from the bandstand from 8.30pm.
Saturday 29 August, 11.30pm: Il Concerto, Armonia di Musica, Fuoco e Luce. A DJ, singers and musicians in Triq Dun Ġużepp Galea Rapa with fireworks and lights synchronised to the music, by Sinfonia Del Sole. Free.
Sunday 30 August, 9am: the pontifical mass, led by Bishop Mons. Anton Teuma, with the Missa Cum Jubilo in Honorem B.V.M. Lauretana by Mro Dr John Galea sung by the Virgo and Lauretana choirs with orchestra. Other masses at 6.30am, 7.30am, 11.15am and 5pm.
Sunday 30 August, 7.30pm: Our Lady leaves the parish church to the bells ringing the Ave Maria, and the procession sets off at 8pm with the rosary. The Leone Band of Victoria play from the bandstand and salute her at 10.15pm with Gounod’s Ave Maria, sung by soprano Antonella Rapa. She re-enters the church at 10.30pm to synchronised fireworks over the square.
Friday 4 September, 6.30pm: the day of thanksgiving, closing with the titular statue returning to her niche.
Top Tip: If you are picking one night, make it Saturday 29 August, but plan the journey home first. The late shows run from 11.15pm onwards and the last ferry to Malta is a short walk downhill at Mġarr, which is what makes Għajnsielem one of the easier feasts to do from a Malta base.
Programme changes are announced on Radju Lauretana and the parish Facebook page first.
If the wider festa rhythm is new to you, the petards, band marches and processions, our Gozo village feasts guide explains the traditions behind what you’re watching.
A Feast Born at the Harbour
The devotion here started with water. Tradition holds that Our Lady appeared to a villager near the spring that gave Għajnsielem its name, and the first Loreto church was built in thanksgiving after the village was spared a cholera outbreak. In 1866 the statue of Our Lady, sculpted in Marseilles, arrived by sea and was carried in procession up from Mġarr Harbour to the village, a route the feast has echoed ever since.
The church you see today took rather longer. Planned in the 1920s to replace the older church the village had outgrown, the neo-Gothic build was interrupted by war, accidents (including the builder falling from the loft) and several changes of architect, and wasn’t consecrated until 1978. The result was worth the half-century: those spires are now the first piece of Gozo most visitors ever see.
What Makes the Loreto Festa Special
Two things, and they’re both wonderfully specific to this village.
The first is the cloth. Each year a patterned fabric is chosen, and the residents of the Balzunetta quarter buy lengths of it to have garments made, so that come feast week an entire neighbourhood marches in matching material. Shirts, dresses, waistcoats, whatever the tailor was asked for, all cut from the same bolt. You might even see dogs wearing bandana’s made from it.
You’ll spot the year’s pattern everywhere during the celebrations, and spotting last year’s on a washing line in October is its own small pleasure.
The second is the flight. Late on one of the final nights, the statue of Our Lady arrives at her pedestal in a way no other Gozo feast attempts: lifted and gliding above the square to the roar of the crowd below. A statue whose whole tradition rests on the miraculous flight of the Holy House of Loreto, airborne over Pjazza Madonna ta’ Loreto, is the kind of literal-minded devotion that makes Gozo’s feasts unforgettable.
Where to Stay for the Loreto Feast
Għajnsielem has more variety than most feast villages: apartments and guesthouses in the village itself, the Fort Chambray development above the harbour, and the restaurants along the Mġarr waterfront a short walk downhill. Staying here also makes it the easiest feast on Gozo to reach and leave, which brings us to the practical bit.
Getting There and Home Again
This is the one Gozo feast where the usual transport warning barely applies. The village is a walk uphill from the Mġarr ferry terminal, which means you can arrive from Malta, spend the evening at the festa and catch a late crossing home; check the ferry timetables for the night sailings on feast weekend. Buses to Victoria and the rest of the island still thin out after about 9pm, so for anywhere beyond walking distance, plan on Bolt or eCabs as usual. If you’re driving, the streets around the square close for the celebrations, so park towards the harbour and walk up.
You can find full details in our guide to getting to and around Gozo.
FAQ
The Loreto festa closes Gozo’s August the way the village greets every ferry: at full height and impossible to miss. If you’re on the island earlier in the month, Qala’s feast of San Ġużepp opens August with the best fireworks on Gozo, the full calendar is in our village feasts guide, and our August What’s On guide has our top picks for everything happening around the feasts.