Malta Fireworks Festival 2015

WHAT: Malta International Fireworks Festival 2015
WHEN: Saturday 25th April, Thursday 30th April & Saturday 2nd May 2015
WHERE: 3 sites around Malta’s coastal region

The Malta International Fireworks Festival started in 2004 in commemoration of Malta’s accession into the European Union and has continued to attract some of the biggest names in the Display Firework industry.

It is a pyro-musical competition which is organised by the Ministry for Tourism and the Malta Tourism Authority and is hugely popular both with the local residents and visitors to the Island alike.

Malta is a highly religious area and is recognised as one of the smallest and yet densely populated countries in the World. Predominantly Catholic the Island is claimed to be where Jesus’s apostle, Paul, was shipwrecked. It is also the site of the ancestral home of the Knights of St John who were protectors of the Island for more than 250 years and gave the island its famous ‘Maltese Cross’ and there are hundreds of military vestiges dotted around the islands (particularly around the coastal regions) including forts, watch towers, castles and huge impenetrable walls.

Since the launch of the competition the skills on show get better every year. The Maltese have used fireworks for religious festivals for hundreds of years so it is unsurprising that there are so many firework factories around.

The international competitors in this year’s festival are as follows:

Thailand Fireworks – Thailand
A P E di Parente – Italy

They will be joined in the competition by local display specialists:

St Mary’s Fireworks Factory – Ghaxaq
Lourdes Fireworks Factory – Qrendi
St Andrews Band Fireworks – Luqa

Last years very worthy winners were Pyrotex Fireworx from the UK and I particularly liked the impeccably timed sweeping slices and the purples and mint green’s made a refreshing change from the red, gold and green which are the dominant colours of any display.

In conjunction with this year’s international competition there will be holding a National event which is fiercely fought featuring some of the Islands best:

Lourdes Fireworks Factory – Qrendi
St Marys Fireworks Complex – Mgarr
Socjeta Piroteknika 15 ta Awissu - Mosta

The event is at one of three locations over the last week of April:

Saturday 25th April – Marsaxlokk
Thursday 30th April – Grand Harbour Valletta
Saturday 2nd May – Bugibba

If you are fortunate enough to be visiting this lush green isle, time it to coincide with this magical event and enjoy some of the best fireworks that Europe has to offer.