Gozo Events October 2026: Opera, Kites and Halloween

Our Top Picks

Coming over for a day rather than staying? A Gozo day tour takes care of the ferry and transport so you can fit an event around the sights.

Pet Awareness Day, Għarb

The Gozo SPCA turns 50 this year and is celebrating with a morning on Għarb Square. There’s a fun dog show, a photo competition, artisan stalls and a raffle, plus face painting, balloon modelling and a bouncy castle for children. Talks cover pet first aid, dog training and animal welfare, Nature Trust will be there, and microchipping is free if you’ve brought your dog. Food and drink on the square. Bring the dog, or come and meet everyone else’s.

Kite and Wind Festival, Għarb

Kite flyers from around the world return to the countryside around San Dimitri on the edge of Għarb for a day of flying displays, wind-inspired activities and family entertainment. Free, outdoors and easy to drop in and out of, which makes it the natural daytime half of a day that ends at the opera.

La Traviata, Teatru tal-Opra Aurora

The Aurora was inaugurated on 9 October 1976, so its golden jubilee and this production fall eight days apart. Verdi’s La Traviata was the opera it first staged in 1978, and it returns to the title for the anniversary, with Zuzana Markova as Violetta and Colin Attard directing and conducting. Sung in Italian with English subtitles. Coming over from Malta on foot, there’s a free shuttle from Mġarr timed to meet the 17:45 ferry, and it takes you back for the midnight boat.

Top Tip: if you can only be on Gozo for one day this month, make it Saturday 17 October. Kites in Għarb from ten, back to change, and the Aurora’s curtain at half past seven.

Music & Arts

Opera Season

Each of Gozo’s two opera houses stages one full production in October. Full casts, booking advice, the dress code and where to eat before the curtain are all in our Opera on Gozo guide. La Traviata is in Our Top Picks above. Both opera houses are in Victoria, which was recommended in September as European Capital of Culture for 2031.

Madama Butterfly, Teatru Astra

The Astra’s first Madama Butterfly since 2012, in a new production directed by Enrico Stinchelli, with Celine Byrne as Cio-Cio-San and Leonardo Caimi as Pinkerton. The second night falls on Halloween, which gives 31 October the oddest choice of the year.

The Scenographer’s Opera, Teatru Astra

An exhibition of Joseph Cauchi’s stage sets from 30 years as the Astra’s scenographer, and the best way to understand how productions on this scale get built on an island this size.

Music and Concerts

The Opera is Gozo programme fills the rest of the month with concerts, nearly all of them free.

The Ewfonija Grand Operatic Concert, Żebbuġ

The fifth edition, with the Ewfonija Chorus and Orchestra under Mariella Spiteri Cefai working through arias, choruses and orchestral highlights from the operatic repertoire.

Piano at the Opera, Victoria

An hour of operatic piano transcriptions and arias with a guest singer, drawing on Verdi and Wagner.

Symphony of Lights

Set against the backdrop of Santa Luċija Church, this annual concert features music and lights combined for a magical evening.

Showcasing Tomorrow’s Performers, Teatru Astra

Students from the La Stella School of Music alongside the newest members of the La Stella Band. The Astra’s stage belongs to the next generation for the night.

Chapel Trail Cantata

Schola Cantorum Jubilate sing in a series of historic chapels across the island, with a bus between venues from the Park and Ride and a guide on the history of each chapel.

Village Feasts and Folk Events

The summer festa season has finished but in October, Għasri holds out.

Our Lady of Patronage, Għasri

The last village feast of the year, in Gozo’s smallest village, with the Bażilka tal-Wied at its centre. Check out the full guide to the Għasri feast.

Fjakkolata, Kerċem

Folk music, traditional dance and local food at Għar Ilma in Santa Luċija, lit by the fjakkoli, the flaming torches that give the evening its name.

Top Tip: Sunday 11 October is the busiest day of the month. Pet Awareness Day in Għarb in the morning, Għasri’s feast through the day, then a choice between the Fjakkolata in Kerċem and the young performers at the Astra in the evening. Għarb, Għasri and Kerċem sit close together in the west of the island, so it’s easy to string together.

Halloween on Gozo

On 31 October you can choose between Puccini at the Astra and a scare zone in Xewkija, which says a fair amount about how Gozo does Halloween. Then two days later the island marks All Saints and All Souls in its own quieter way.

The Haunting of Blankas, Xewkija

Ġnien Blankas is turned into a Halloween attraction for the night, with professional actors, live theatre and storytelling, atmospheric lighting and soundscapes, animatronics and dedicated scare zones. Pitched at families and teenagers, though the scare zones are exactly what they say.

Eyes Wide Shut 2.0, Sannat

A Halloween masquerade from Wicked Events Gozo, inspired by Kubrick’s film. The dress code is strict, masked and cloaked, and it’s adults only. The ball finishes at midnight, when the Hub starts its own afterparty, a separate event that’s open to everyone.

Eyes Wide Shut 2.0, Sannat

Nadur Square has hosts a free family Halloween, with music, games, crafts, pumpkin carving and face painting through the evening, dance performances, a magician and a fire-spinning show.

All Saints and All Souls

1 and 2 November. Churches across Gozo mark All Saints with candlelight, and on All Souls families visit the cemeteries to remember their dead. If Halloween is the imported version, this is the one that belongs to the island.

Gozo in October: Final Thoughts

October is the month I’d send a first-time visitor who wants to see Gozo as it is. Warm enough for the beach, quiet enough to find a table anywhere, and busy in the evenings with things the island does for itself. Book the opera first, then the ferry, then everything else. If the opera is what’s bringing you over, our Opera on Gozo guide has everything you need.