Potassiumchlorate Posted April 25, 2012 Posted April 25, 2012 (edited) I have never been to Malta myself, but I found a long thread with hundreds of pics from the island on an architecture, infrastructure and travel forum. I hope it's OK to link to it here. Very few firework pics, alas. The island of Malta It reminds me of Crete in architecture, and it has been a part of the Byzantine Empire. What surprised me the most when reading up on it was that the language of the Maltese is a Semitic language with Latin letters! I always thought that Maltese was a Roman language, considering the proximity to Italy. It's full of Italian words, though, maybe up to 50%. The first known settlers on the island were Phoenicians. Malta means "safe harbour". Edited April 25, 2012 by Potassiumchlorate
warthog Posted April 25, 2012 Posted April 25, 2012 (edited) My folks have been to Malta. They said the people were very nice and that they had a good time there. They did see a fireworks show or two but to them it was just like all the others since they can't really see the craftsmanship that is unique to that place over what they would see over the Gulf of Mexico on Independence Day here in the States. I wouldn't mind going and seeing how they make their fantastic shells and huge ground displays. Edited April 25, 2012 by warthog
Arthur Posted April 25, 2012 Posted April 25, 2012 I've never been but lots of Brits do go. Two things -The big shows are on the Saint's day of the Church in question, so you can go there when there isn't a show anywhere and for the Saint's day shows you only get one show. On festival days there are competitions so several shows can be found for one weekend! The fireworks firms are all amateurs and they work for their own Church competitively against all the others so they do not share secrets.
FREAKYDUTCHMEN Posted April 25, 2012 Posted April 25, 2012 I'm going next saturday, unfortunately missing the final display shot by Parente on Tuesday. But there are many other shows till Monday. I was told by a friend there is lots of rubbish on the island, he said it looked like a dump, I hope it has changed over the years. There are many amateurs indeed, every village has a factory, but there are professionals as well. I also know some pyrotechnicians from Malta are hired by other factories here in Europe and maybe outside Europe as well.
Arthur Posted April 26, 2012 Posted April 26, 2012 I use the term amateur in the financial sense, they do the work for their church without pay, I definitely accept that they are all master craftsmen and worthy of paid employment in the industry.
FREAKYDUTCHMEN Posted April 29, 2012 Posted April 29, 2012 Nice Island and nice people. Competition shows were rubbish today, bad quality shells (import).A friend told me the maltese shells last week were really impressive.
50AE Posted April 30, 2012 Posted April 30, 2012 A pyro friend is there now. He is visiting their factories. He said it's nothing he had ever seen before, no camera or camcoder could describe the greatness of this stuff. I hope he brings some photos
FREAKYDUTCHMEN Posted April 30, 2012 Posted April 30, 2012 Is it the guy with long white hair? Today I've seen a really fantastic maltese show in Valletta nice lampares, multibreaks, cilinders, chrysanthemums everything. Really really nice stuff.
50AE Posted April 30, 2012 Posted April 30, 2012 Not really. Short dark haired, goatee moustache beard
FREAKYDUTCHMEN Posted May 1, 2012 Posted May 1, 2012 Not really. Short dark haired, goatee moustache beard Hehe ok. Met one guy from bulgaria, he was also in the business.
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