Fireworks are a big part of the culture in Malta. Sort of surprising since it was one of the most heavily bombed places in the world. Regardless, once a year this obsession with all things that go boom goes into overdrive. Every April, Malta hosts the Malta International Fireworks festival. The festival extends for several days across a variety of different locations in Malta.
During our recent visit to Malta, we were fortunate enough to be there for the last night of the festival. The evening featured a variety of Catherine Wheels. These are ground displays on structures that use the power of the fireworks to spin them like pinwheels. It is what happens when an engineer and a pyromaniac build a Rube Goldberg machine. We were determined not to miss this, despite standing in the wind and rain for a couple of hours due to conflicts between 3 published start times. Hey … they all got the date correct.
Attached is a short video compilation of several of the 2019 Catherine Wheel competitors. The video and photos were shot on a smart-phone so apologies for the poor quality. As you can see … the teams get pretty excited when things go well. Press play and give it a second or two to load, turn up the volume, and enjoy. Good luck keeping the smoke out of your eyes.
Travel Tip
Whenever you are planning a trip, it always pays to check to see if there are any unique cultural events taking place before you get there. The local tourist office website is often a great starting place for upcoming events. Enjoying a local event can be the perfect book-end to any visit, whether it is a food fair in Parma, a soccer match in Madrid, a beer festival in Bergen, a New Years Party in Paris, an F1 race in Barcelona, Jimmy Buffet on the beach in Hawaii, a polo match in Argentina, or a fireworks competition in Malta.
