30-foot man to be set ablaze
Video: Paul Spiteri Lucas
Seeing a man set on fire is something most people hope they will never have to witness.
But what if the man were 30 feet tall, made entirely of wood and set ablaze for a good cause?
The gargantuan human effigy is the centrepiece of a day-long music and art festival being held tomorrow at Naxxar’s old Trade Fair Grounds.
And with all the proceeds going to Mater Dei Hospital’s renal unit, festival-goers will surely have plenty of reason to cheer as the flames lick the night sky.
The brainchild of bicycle maniac and Life Cycle 2012 participant Luke Marshall, the Man on Fire festival is set to incorporate a kaleidoscopic range of activities.
A 3,000-balloon water fight – which Mr Marshall estimates is Malta’s largest ever – will kick events off in the early afternoon, with bands playing against the background of the aged and derelict remains of what was once Malta’s premier expo.
Visitors’ €5 entry ticket will also buy them the chance to witness a stunt show by BMX riders, take part in sumo suit wrestling and even take turns at hitting an adult piñata, filled with what Mr Marshall described as “the adult equivalent of sweets”.
“We’d like to create something novel for Malta, giving up-and-coming artistes and musicians a chance to shine in an environment most people won’t be used to,” Mr Marshall explained.
Organisers were busy planning the construction of a miniature house when The Times visited the site.
The plan is for the house to float slowly into the sky with the aid of multiple helium balloons, mirroring events in Pixar’s’ animated film Up.
The centrepiece, however, remained the gigantic timber man, towering above the festival grounds with a quizzical – and wooden – smile on his “face”. Mr Marshall candidly admitted that the idea was borrowed from the world-renowned Burning Man festival, held annually in the US Nevada desert.
“We’ve called it Man on Fire to avoid copyright issues.
“Hopefully, the event will be a success and it could become an annual, or at least bi-annual, occurrence.”
With more than 400 people having pledged to attend the event on Facebook, Mr Marshall is hoping to add a substantial amount of money to the Life Cycle’s fundraising kitty.
But with the daunting 10-day, 1,900-kilometre cycle from Brisbane to Melbourne, Australia, edging closer by the day, he is very unlikely to have much time for resting on his laurels.
“This will be my second Life Cycle, having cycled from Istanbul to Damascus in 2009.
“I had no idea what I was in for, but it turned out to be one of the most incredible experiences ofmy life.
“Now, three years later, I’m ready to do it all over again.”
This 30-foot-high wooden effigy is due to be set alight tomorrow evening as the centrepiece of the day-long Man on Fire music and arts festival at Naxxar’s old Trade Fair Grounds, which is raising money for Mater Dei Hospital’s renal unit. Photo: Darrin Zammit Lupi
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18 Comments
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Mr Julian Delia
Sep 1st 2012, 02:43
At the end of the day... while all you moaners and haters will be at home probably doing nothing, experiencing yet another mundane Saturday night doing absolutely nothing and judging people, a bunch of us... a rather big group that is.. will be enjoying the fruits of their labour, and have a well deserved day of fun. Something we can all look back in 10years and say look what we did. While you will all be at home thinking of something "clever to say" we will be having a good ol Man on Fire time. \m/
Jason Mallia
Sep 1st 2012, 02:30
Kulhadd jeqred go dal-pajjiz. Ahjar flok qed thamgu l-ambjent billi tuzaw elektriku biex toqodu teqirdu aw, tatu dik ix-xi haga al karita,ax forsi ghada tista tigi bzonn l ajnuna int !!!!
KATRINA BORG BUHAGIAR
Aug 31st 2012, 19:59
Well done to all involved - it takes a lot of man hours and dedication for such an event to happen - all this for a very good cause -
Adam Done
Aug 31st 2012, 18:52
@Mr John Borg
Are you serious? you're complaining over the fossil fuels used in producing balloons?? so what about all the fossil fuels involved in manufacturing your computer you used to post that comment... and to ship it to Malta and the power to run it? Some of yo maltese are so sad... if i could i would have given them another 3000 balloons and made a massive wooden wife for man of fire to burn as well... Lets hope if you ever got sick that your precious fossil fuel would cure you...
Matthew Marshall
Aug 31st 2012, 18:44
To all the narrow minded blinkered loosers complaining about such futile things as the waste of wood this is for a good cause to help people with kidney failure, so when your kidneys fail don't worry we'll save some wood for you and hope you get better.
Pule' Carmel
Aug 31st 2012, 19:43
Interesting, suffocating a few asthmatic people first! to save others
Matthew Marshall
Aug 31st 2012, 21:34
I guess at this rate which should shut the Paralympics down as well
Pule' Carmel
Aug 31st 2012, 16:28
What about the smoke to the inconvenience of the residences nearby. At Kalkara I occasionally suffer from this, smoke has no boundaries as noise and if smoke gets in to the rooms, where people with asthma resides, this could be a very cruel issue. I would have been more intelligent to make a moving man and then show the motions and the mechanical structures and then undo it and take the wood to the baker to make bread with or any other confectioneries.
But obviously silly people will always take the path of effortless pleasures as sex and drugs , this is a form of drug anyway. it is an efforless path which contains some spectacular, small minds I say, not much depth,
Matthew Marshall
Aug 31st 2012, 21:33
Are you asthmatic? cause I am and I'm going to be there donating my time to a good cause and I assure I'll seurvive a little smoke in the air.
Peter Bonello
Aug 31st 2012, 14:57
very cool initiative!! will certainly try to make it!! ;)
now let us wait for whining people saying staff like "omg, all that wood - could have been used to make pencils!" or "now the Amazonian rain forest is going to end up reduced to a desert".. etc etc
Warren J. Borg Ebejer
Aug 31st 2012, 14:52
Let us hope no one argues about a waste of wood now.
Mary Borg
Aug 31st 2012, 13:05
Well done for the idea and the initiative. I hope no-one will grumble that they are emulating Guy Fawkes' bonfire now.
J. Scicluna
Aug 31st 2012, 12:42
"We’ve called it Man on Fire to avoid copyright issues"
"Man on Fire" is also a 2004 movie starring Denzel Washington and Dakota Fanning written by A.J. Quinell who lived in Gozo until his demise.
Wilfred Camilleri
Aug 31st 2012, 11:30
The original idea is quite old and was for a very sinister use - it was an execution method used by the ancient Druids! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wicker_Man
Love the fact that the concept has been turned around & being used for a good cause - well done!!
Oh! There was a movie in 1973 and a more recent one which shows how it was used originally - scary... :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gZfUoWZW6A&feature=fvwrel
Mr Peter Korsten
Aug 31st 2012, 17:54
That 1973 film is one of the most disturbing films I've ever seen. The 2006 remake... well, let's not go there. The summary on YouTube is enough.
Joe A. Borg
Aug 31st 2012, 11:06
Has this been labled the weeked of waste!
what about the inconvenience to the surrounding residents?
Will they have the Civil protection on stand-by?
Joseph Casha
Aug 31st 2012, 10:39
A.J. Quinell might have had some issues with the name "Man on Fire" :)
Mr John Borg
Aug 31st 2012, 10:19
Fgura tomato fight wastes food and water.
This initiative wastes firewood, fuel to get the thing burning. As well as the balloons waste resources (the balloons themselves which use up fossil fuels to be produced) as well as the water to fill them.
Is this OK? Or will we have loads of complaints against this too? Or since one is in Naxxar when the other is in Fgura we will react differently?
Marco Cremona will draw up a report on this on his estimate of how much water this will consume?
Please choose the reason of your report below: