Valletta’s Annual Street Cinema Festival Calls It A Day Following Neighbours’ Complaints And Local Council’s Permit Rejection

Triq Cinemoon, a popular open-air cinema event in Valletta which has been going for six years now, has had to call it a day. This comes after the organisers were not given any more permits by the Valletta Local Council.

Cinemoon took to Facebook yesterday to share the sad news, explaining that the summer festival had also come under fire from locals. “We have had some complains from the neighbours and we have been reported to the police for blocking the street, so we have to move from St John Street after six summers in a row,” the organisers said.

“It’s a shame,” they continued, “but apparently a group of adult people watching a film under the moon is more disturbing for capital city’s harmony that all the arguable music and construction or traffic noise that we are suffering everyday.”

This year’s edition of the festival had three showings left, with the next one being tomorrow. While that screening (dubbed In The Country), will be cancelled, the organisers are already looking for another venue to host their last two cinema nights for the year.

In their Facebook post, Cinemoon thanked Cafe Society, a bar by the steps of their open-air venue, for hosting their events and everyone who supported previous editions of the festival.

The organisers ended their post by taking a cheeky jab at the current Bollywood movie being filmed in the same street, saying no sooner had they left the area that they were replaced by “night clubs, prostitution, drug dealers and the underworld.”

As Cinemoon’s adventure is set to take them to different venues around the island, comments from the public ranged from relieved residents to annoyed attendees.

What do you think of this news? Let us know in the comments and tag someone who’s been to one of Cinemoon’s events

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