Photo: Darrin Zammit Lupi

I visited Malta last week, for the first time, with my elderly father and was thrilled to discover that a fireworks display would take place during my holiday.

Our family group headed for Valetta from Sliema on Wednesday evening, having tried to find out when the display would take place. Nobody seemed to know. Such information was essential to us because of my father’s age, however, we guessed the display take place mid-evening.

What followed was farcical. We waited from 8.30pm at a spot overlooking the Grand Harbour, together with thousands of holidaymakers and locals. Hours ticked by with no hint of when the fireworks would come; even a policeman didn’t know.

After three hours standing, watching two projected advertisements endlessly recycling and what appeared to be accidental releases of an occasional firework, we gave up and caught the bus back to Sliema.

Shortly after arriving back at our hotel, the display took place, an occasional firework appearing on the skyline.

Other holidaymakers had an even worse experience, paying quite a high price to sit on boats for hours on end; they had been told they would be back at Sliema Ferries by midnight.

If the aim was to keep people buying food and drink in Valletta, it failed miserably; most of us stayed near the wall at St Barbara Bastion, fearing we would be at the back of the crowd when the fireworks started, so we spent very little.

There wasn’t even anything visual to keep us entertained in those four hours.

Even the posters were wrong, announcing (without mention of timings) the Ground Fireworks Finale as opposed to the Grand Fireworks Finale.

Forget firing fireworks, proceed to fire the organisers.