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Xlendi Feast 2026: The Festa of Our Lady of Carmel

Xlendi is one of the bays everyone photographs, a narrow inlet of blue water below the cliffs at the end of the road down from Victoria. Once a year it holds a feast that owes its existence to a storm. Xlendi celebrates Our Lady of Carmel, il-Madonna tal-Karmnu, and in 2026 the festa falls on Sunday 6 September, the first Sunday of the month.

When Is the Xlendi Feast 2026?

The feast day is Sunday 6 September 2026, but the programme starts eleven days earlier, on Thursday 27 August. Everything happens at the church of Our Lady of Carmel on Triq tal-Għajn and in the bay below it, which is about as compact as a Gozo feast gets. The traditional games run on the feast day itself, from around 1pm, so you can take in the water sports in the afternoon and the procession in the evening without moving the car.

Top Tip: Our Lady of Carmel’s universal feast day is 16 July, which is why you will sometimes see that date attached to Xlendi by mistake. The village holds its own celebration at the end of the summer instead, so aim for late August, or early September, not July.

How the Feast Unfolds

Xlendi’s is a chapel feast rather than a full village festa, so it is a gentler affair than San Pawl up in Munxar or the grand parish feasts elsewhere on the island. The celebration centres on the Carmel chapel and the waterfront, with mass, music and a procession that carries the statue of Our Lady around the bay she watches over. The games earlier in the season draw their own crowd, a bit of good-natured competition that has become as much a part of the Xlendi summer as the feast day itself.

The novena opens on Thursday 27 August and runs nightly. The pattern is the same most days: mass at 8am, the Rosary and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament at 6.30pm, then the novena mass at 7pm with a different celebrant each evening. Mons. Noel Saliba, Archpriest of the Cathedral, opens it, and the rector Mons. Ġużeppi Farrugia takes the Saturday.

Two evenings are worth noting if you are choosing which to attend. On Tuesday 1 September the novena mass is celebrated by Canon Anton Refalo, parish priest of Munxar, a reminder that Xlendi sits inside Munxar’s parish and the two share their clergy. The final three days, 2, 3 and 4 September, are the tridu, each with a sermon and the Kurunella of Our Lady of Carmel: Canon Simon Cachia of Fontana, then Dun Samuel Aquilina, newly ordained at the Basilica of St George, then Canon Brian Mejlak of Ta’ Kerċem.

The 2026 Programme

Sunday 30 August: The Statue Comes Out

The Sunday before the feast is the one to catch if you can only manage a single evening in the run-up. At 9.30am there is mass with First Holy Communion, followed by the ħruġ min-niċċa, when the devotional statue of Our Lady of Carmel is brought out of its niche. Mons. Giovanni Bosco Cremona also presents his booklet on the history of the Xlendi church, Frak mill-Istorja tal-Knisja tax-Xlendi.

The evening novena mass at 7pm is given over to young people, led by Mons. Giovanni Curmi, Vicar General, and afterwards everyone spills out onto the zuntier, the parvis in front of the church, for an hour or so of company. It is the most sociable night of the novena and a good one to be at if you want to see the village rather than the spectacle.

Saturday 5 September: The Eve

Mass at 8am opens the day. The Rosary and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament follow at 6.30pm, then at 7pm there is a translation procession and Mass with sung Vespers, led by the rector, Mons. Ġużeppi Farrugia, closing with the Sacramental Blessing.

The evening moves outdoors at 7.45pm, when the Allegro Clefs Band march off from Triq il-Kantra, along Triq San Xmun and the harbour, and finish in front of the church. If you only catch one thing on the eve, make it this. A band march along a bay this narrow sounds like nothing else on the island.

Sunday 6 September: The Feast Day

Mass at 8am is celebrated by Fr Salv Grech of the Archdiocese of Westminster in London. At 9.30am comes the Solemn Pontifical Mass, celebrated by Mons. Anton Teuma, Bishop of Gozo, with the Laudate Pueri Choir of the Basilica of St George singing under Canon George J. Frendo.

The afternoon belongs to the water. From around 1pm the traditional games take over the bay, with swimming, a regatta and the blessing of the boats and yachts. The ġostra, the greasy pole run out over the water with a flag at the far end, starts at roughly 2pm and is the one everybody stays for. Prizes are handed out once the games are done.

Back in the church, the Rosary and Benediction are at 5.30pm and Mass at 6pm, again with Mons. Ġużeppi Farrugia. At 7pm the titular statue of Our Lady of Carmel leaves the church for the procession through the streets, accompanied by Mons. Giovanni B. Cremona, Cathedral Canon, the clergy and the Santa Margerita Band of Sannat.

The statue comes home at about 9.30pm to singing and fireworks, ground and aerial, over the bay. A final supplication to Our Lady of Carmel and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament close the feast.

The Feast a Storm Left Behind

In August 1964 a storm hit Xlendi hard. In its wake, the rector of the day, Fr Ġużepp Curmi, launched a collection among the villagers to have a statue made in thanksgiving that the community had come through it. The result arrived the following year: a statue of Our Lady of Carmel, made in Milan in 1965, and, unusually, worked in papier-mâché rather than carved. It is the statue still carried at the feast today, and the reason Xlendi’s celebration sits in the storm season of late summer rather than on Carmel’s July date.

What Makes the Xlendi Feast Special

Two things, and the first is that origin. Most feast statues honour a saint or a founding; Xlendi’s marks a specific bad night in August 1964 and the relief that followed it. Knowing that as you watch the papier-mâché figure carried along the water gives the whole thing a weight its size might not suggest.

The second is the setting. Few Gozo feasts happen quite so close to the sea. The bay, the cliffs and the old watchtower make a backdrop the big inland parishes cannot match, and on a warm September evening, with the celebration reflected in the water, Xlendi makes a strong case for the prettiest feast on the island.

Where to Stay for the Xlendi Feast

Xlendi is one of the easier feasts to stay right on top of. The bay has hotels, apartments and guesthouses within a few minutes of the chapel, plus the restaurants along the front for dinner before the evening events. If Xlendi is full, Victoria is a ten-minute drive up the hill and central for everywhere else.

Getting There and Home Again

Xlendi sits at the bottom of the valley below Victoria, reached on the road down through Fontana. Buses run from Victoria to the bay but ease off in the evening, so for the later part of the feast plan on Bolt or eCabs to get home. Parking down in the bay is tight at the best of times and tighter on feast day, so arrive early or leave the car in Victoria and come down by taxi. Full details are in our guide to getting to and around Gozo.

You can find full details in our guide to getting to and around Gozo.

FAQ

Xlendi celebrates Our Lady of Carmel on Sunday 6 September 2026, the first Sunday of the month, with the eve on Saturday 5 September. The traditional water games are held on the feast day itself, from around 1pm.

Our Lady of Carmel’s universal feast day is 16 July, but Xlendi holds its celebration on the first Sunday of September. The timing goes back to the statue’s origin, made in thanksgiving after a storm hit the bay in August 1964.

Of course, it’s not a feast without fireworks. Yes. Ground and aerial fireworks go up at around 9.30pm on the feast day, as the statue returns to the church at the end of the procession

The ġostra is the greasy pole, a beam run out over the water with a flag at the end for competitors to grab. Most of them end up in the sea. At Xlendi it starts at roughly 2pm on the feast day, as part of the traditional games in the bay.

Yes. Xlendi Bay lies within Munxar’s parish, which is why the two share streets and clergy. Xlendi celebrates Our Lady of Carmel on the first Sunday of September; in 2026 Munxar’s San Pawl feast follows on 13 September.

The statue of Our Lady of Carmel was made in Milan in 1965, in papier-mâché, commissioned by the rector Fr Ġużepp Curmi after a collection among the villagers in thanksgiving following the storm of August 1964.

Yes. The celebration and the games are free and open to all. Bring cash for the food stalls and a table at one of the bay’s restaurants if you want dinner with a view.

Xlendi’s feast is a quieter, seaside counterpart to the big parish festas, and an easy one to fold into an early-September trip. Munxar celebrates San Pawl the following Sunday, Victoria’s Our Lady of Graces closes the summer festa season on the 20th, and our September What’s On rounds up the rest of the month.