Fireworks festival lights up harbour

Grand Harbour provided an excellent backdrop for Malta`s first fireworks festival yesterday, offering a display of blazing, colourful lights momentarily turning the night into day.

The multi-coloured showers created a fairy-tale aura turning the harbour front into a joyous feast for visitors and Maltese alike.

The heavens sparkled as the fireworks illuminated honey hued buildings and landmarks seemingly held together by a curtain of bastions reminiscent of the fortress that the island was for hundreds of years.

The festival, the island`s first, was a different experience from the traditional fireworks displays seen on festa days, said Birmingham pyrotechnician Nigel Village, who was all for Malta having such a festival in its tourist calendar.

During a festival, unlike a festa, fireworks are let off from various vantage points on land and from a series of barges.

Organised by the Malta Tourism Authority, the festival involves 13 fireworks factories from Malta and Gozo.

However, one of the spectators expressed disappointment. "I was expecting to see more fireworks going up from different locations at the same time, and something more spectacular than a village festa, but this was not the case."

The two-day festival today starts at 7.30 p.m. with band marches by the Mount Carmel Band of Gzira starting near Victoria Gate close to Liesse Church at Lascaris Wharf in Valletta.

There will be a show along the waterfront by the Paul Curmi Dancers and singers Tony Camilleri and the Greenfields, followed by the fireworks display at 9.30 p.m. The show ends at about 11 p.m.

Mr Village, who came to Malta to watch the festival, said fireworks were extremely popular around both Mediterranean and northern European countries.

Mr Village said he had often taken part in similar festivals in the UK, Canada, Spain, Monte Carlo and Belgium.

"The idea of having such a festival is a very good one. It is a nice concept that will hopefully not be a one-off.

"Such festivals bring in a lot of people who appreciate the painstaking preparation of the pyrotechnicians and the logistics involved in such a complex operation," Mr Village said.

In the UK, about 10 such festivals are held annually, most of them along rivers, particularly the Thames. There were 70 fireworks display companies but only four fireworks manufacturers, he said.

Asked whether the explosions accompanying fireworks bothered people, Mr Village said people attending such festivals took these explosive sounds as part and parcel of the spectacle.

Twanny Farrugia, secretary of St Michael`s Fireworks Factory of Lija, said the Malta pyrotechnics organisation, which has 37 member factories, had been toying with the idea of holding a festival for years but nothing had come of it.

"The MTA has made this idea come to fruition. This is the first time so many fireworks factories have worked so closely to give visitors and the Maltese public a visual extravaganza," Mr Farrugia said.

The St Michael`s factory will today be letting off about 2,000 shells from a barge in synch with Rossini`s William Tell.

Noel Castillo from the MTA helped to coordinate the festival.

"Fireworks factories are known for the rivalry that exists over who produces the most grandiose displays and it is heartening to see such dedication and technical know-how focused on this festival," he said.

Mr Castillo said that the pyrotechnicians letting off the fireworks have to keep their wits about them in order to be able to synchronise the fireworks with a vibrant musical repertoire including popular numbers by Vangelis, Charles Camilleri and Jean Michelle Jarre.

The other fireworks factories taking part are 25th November, Zejtun; Lourdes, St Gwann; 15th August, Mosta; Our Lady of Consolation, Gudja; St Mary, Zebbug, Malta; 12th May, Zebbug, Malta; Victor Ellul, Mqabba; St Mary, Mosta; St Joseph, Ghaxaq; St Mary, Mqabba; Farrugia Brothers Fontana, Gozo; and St Joseph, Zebbug, Malta.