One night's fare

The other Saturday, the Prime Minister turned up at the Mediterranean Conference Centre for the fourth edition of The National Orchestra Goes Pop.

The presence of the Prime Minister at such events provides a wonderful boost to the organisers, artistes and the countless persons who work behind the scenes to make it happen.

It was practically a full house - over 1,000 persons were there to enjoy our National Orchestra in a 'dressed down' mode - using black attire in the first half and switching to white in the second, playing music ranging from John Williams'Superman March to Comfortably Numb by Pink Floyd, from Hans Zimmer's Pirates of the Caribbean to our own Chasing Pandora's Feel the Rain.

The National Orchestra was directed by a force of energy and creativity - one of its own musicians, Sigmund Mifsud. He was responsible for many of the musical arrangements required for the evening and produced the entire event.

Sigmund is also active in other artistic initiatives, not least the Sliema Youth Band which he founded apart from serving as assistant bandmaster of the Sliema Band Club.

The orchestra was joined by brilliant vocalists Daniel Cauchi, Nadine Axisa, Patrick Wirth, Eleonor Cassar, Krista Paris, Ludwig Galea, Lello Ebejer, Raquela Dalli Gonzi and Melissa Portelli. Marcelline Agius brought the house down with her exuberant violin rendering of the theme from Schindler's List, while Ivan and Mario could show their mettle in Against All Odds by Phil Collins.

Sigmund asked me to present commemorative trophies to the different vocalists who accompanied the National Orchestra, as well as to Marcelline, who leads the orchestra. The trophies produced by Mdina Glass had a musical motif engraved on them and served to express, even if rather modestly, our sense of appreciation to the different artists for their participation and contribution to the event's success.

My own message was and remains one of utter gratitude and support towards local talent. Our country is going through a renaissance in the arts. The presence among us of some of the leading stars in the contemporary musical firmament means that Maltese audiences no longer have to travel to watch their favourite performers. Equally, that renaissance is coming about through what Maltese artists are themselves producing. Nothing gives me more satisfaction than seeing it happen on such an unprecedented scale.

And yes, the truth bears repeating - that this is all happening is no mere coincidence. It does not come about on its own. It's the result of investing heavily in this field, of spending hours upon hours planning out various events in their minutest details, of working together with capable organisers who come forward with their own initiatives and ideas and who feel encouraged to do so because they know that they can count on our concrete support, and of genuinely appreciating the wealth of sheer talent and creativity that our various artists can offer on the local and international stage. Our human resources are growing exponentially and our country is the richer for it.

When I talk of one night's fare, I do not only have in mind the National Orchestra Goes Pop' event which performed again to another packed house the day after.

What I have in mind is a sample of all the different events that were taking place that very same evening.

All examples that follow relate to events that were organised on the same night. As I had occasion to discuss with the Prime Minister during the break of The National Orchestra Goes Pop, that evening, within the context of the Malta Arts Festival - Summer 2007, MADC were offering a packed Opera House site an original and environment-friendly interpretation of A Midsummer Night's Dream, ably directed by Chris Gatt.

MADC moved out of San Anton Gardens for the first time in 70 years to offer their summer Shakespeare production as part of our Arts Festival, using the Opera House site as a venue. Recycled material was used to create the set and costumes. The production worked brilliantly and MADC people have informed me that the audience increased appreciably as a result of their move. Various tourists, noticing the wide array of cultural and artistic events that have been organised, joined the Shakespeare audience.

Our Arts Festival offered another choice to patrons on Saturday night. Puerto Flamenco 2007 - providing the exuberance of dance and music from the heart of Seville - was staged at the courtyard of the Palace in Valletta. Malta's Francesca 'Cikka' Grima and Andrej Vujicic co-ordinated an evening offering authentic flamenco that mesmerised another packed house.

Three different choices given by the Malta Council for Culture and the Arts on the same evening still do not offer a comprehensive picture of the entire night's fare. It was on the same night that Renzo Arbore was living up to his promise to recharge a 5,000 plus audience into a festa happening at the new Fairs and Conventions Centre at Ta' Qali as the persons attending relished and participated in his Neapolitan treat.

On the same night, the Farsons Beer Festival that has provided a wonderful platform in favour of local artistes and bands, was welcoming one of its record attendances. Some 8,000 turned up the other Saturday. The Malta Tourism Authority has given its support to this event and the Ta' Qali happening.

Later that night, I was joining many 'old-timers' at Gianpula. Clearly many who turned up for the nostalgic occasion had made their way to one or more of that night's fare before proceeding to let their hair down until late!

All the events that took place on Saturday were happening over and above the rest of this summer's fare - not least the fact that well over 40,000 people thronged il-Fosos in Floriana two days earlier to attend the Isle of MTV - Malta Special.

Apart from what is still to evolve in the coming weeks - from Claudio Baglioni to Riccardo Muti, from DJ Cox to Chicane, from Simon Schembri to Gigi d'Alessio, from a football game between a number of Italy and UK veterans to Simply Red. And there will be more, much more...

Quote of the month

This is how the pro-Labour daily L-Orizzont felt it should wind up its own "coverage" of the Isle of MTV event:

"Not everyone could hear well (the singers/pop stars) since the pilot of the Armed Forces helicopter was requested to fly low for filming purposes, and as a result of the disturbing/loud noise of the engines, they could not hear" ("... u bl-istorbju tal-makni ma setghux jisimghu.").

It even beats for its absurdity One News asking me if I knew how many tourists came to Malta for the event. There were no tickets! I responded by asking, "Did you expect me to stay at the door counting the tourists coming in?!"

Tourists and events

Which reminds me: Consider these facts - in July we have had an increase of nearly 13 per cent in passenger movements. For the first time in many months, the increase in passenger movements was higher than that of aircraft movements, which translates into better load factors for aircraft flying to Malta.

One reason (not the only one) for that increase is Malta's becoming a hub for an incredible multitude of events. The largest increase of passenger movements was from the UK.

In the meantime, we have official statistics for the first six months of the year: the best six months in the last six years: 501,802 tourists came over - the first time we go over the half million mark in six years - an increase of 6.4 per cent, and although bed nights were down by 3.5 per cent because of a trend towards shorter stays, total expenditure was Lm172.7 million, or 3.7 per cent higher than for the same period last year.

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