S.L. 542.6 ст. 3Establishment of Agency.

(1) There shall be established an Agency, to be known as Festivals Malta Agency, to implement the objectives and perform all those functions established in this order and to create, maintain, organise, administer and oversee the organisation and implementation of a portfolio of national and international cultural and artistic events, festivals and cultural infrastructural projects.

(2) The Agency shall be a body corporate having a distinct legal personality and capable of entering into contracts, of acquiring and disposing of property of any kind for the purposes of its functions under this order and any other law, of suing and of being sued, and of doing all such things and entering into all transactions as are incidental to or conducive to the exercise or performance of its functions aforesaid.

(3) The Agency shall be composed of the Chairperson appointed under article 4(3) and of the Board established under article 4(2), and any other unit necessary for the fulfilment of the powers and functions as outlined in this order.

(4) The Agency shall have the power to formulate its own rules and administrative procedures.

(5) The Agency shall achieve its objective through the performance, amongst others of the following functions:

(a) to provide the right platform to sustain growth and development of the existing festivals portfolio;

(b) to deliver levels of excellence in the execution of events and festivals, benchmarked against top international festivals;

(c) to build on the current portfolio of festivals and events bringing in new ideas and innovation and further dialling up audience engagement and participation;

(d) to develop the Festivals portfolio into an ongoing creative platform for Maltese and international artists and creative practitioners through the commissioning of new work in partnership with national and international arts organisations and festivals and the export of same;

(e) to increase participation locally with more focussed and effective marketing based on segmentation and outreach activities;

(f) to develop distinctive strategies for each festival to engage various audiences and segments of society;

(g) to provide the right tools and enablers to make it easier to attend festivals and increase participation and audience engagement;

(h) to work closely with the Maltese travel industry to grow Malta’s image and brand internationally as an expanding niche in cultural tourism;

(i) to encourage a national arts and culture calendar, offering a consolidated program and driving greater synergies, impact and alignment across public and private cultural organisations;

(j) to establish a strong network of affiliations with local and international cultural organisations, which shall also include regional festival partnerships;

(k) to provide the enablers to fully support events and festivals in Malta and beyond, through common technology, communication, marketing and outreach;

(l) to leverage synergies and optimise costs across the various organisations wherever possible;

(m) to determine further brand recognition for the Agency product;

(n) to exercise any other function that may be assigned by the Minister.