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Thank You Malta


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#1 chemicalwazi

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Posted 03 May 2006 - 02:39 PM

Saturday 29th April

We arrived in Valletta, after a maniac taxi driver tried to tell us that our hotel was closed and took us to another. After a bit of a discussion we were delivered to our correct hotel and checked in. Next up, head to the harbour (after a couple of ‘Al Fresco’ beers) to find the action. When we arrive there are barges full of foiled pyro in the harbour, and nine mechanical wheels 5-15 feet high erected on the quay.
We had some time before the show, so a circumnavigation of Valletta was in hand. This revealed the pub where Oliver Reed had his last pint and died after a drunken arm wrestle. At the foot of the wall outside Fort St Elmo there was a tunnel, which we only ventured in a small way because we lost natural light. Being pyro tourists there were lights in our luggage, so this tunnel warranted further investigation later.
The time came to head for the show. First we met up with Toni (Malta fireworks) and then ‘Bigbang’ (UKRA).

Showtime:

First pyro-musical competitive display: ‘Majestic Power’ by the Jubilee Fireworks Co. Ltd. of the United Kingdom
Fine display of incredibly timed ariel and barge based pyro, including some really nice crosettes and six Girendolas flying over the harbour.

A display of traditional ‘One-by-One’ Fireworks
“Multi-break cracker-shells ( murtali tal-beraq ikkuluriti) by Our Lady of Consolation Fireworks Factory – Gudja, Malta
“Multi-break coloured shells (murtali tal-kulur) by the St. Mary Fireworks Factory – Mosta, Malta and the 19th March Fireworks Factory – Rabat, Malta.

All these traditional Maltese shells were fantastic, they lift to an incredible height, with three breaks followed by a bottom shot which shook the harbour

Mechanical ground fireworks by the 15th August Fireworks Factory, Mosta – Malta and Our Lady of Consolation Fireworks Factory, Gudja – Malta
These were just amazing huge structures comprising cogs, wheels, chains, lances and drivers, all within touching distance of the audience. As they rotated, twisted and turned, pieces of flaming quickmatch and exploding drivers flew through the air. The crowd simply parted to allow a fallout area.

Second pyro-musical competitive display: “Dancing Stars over the Water” by the St. Mary Fireworks Factory – Mqabba, Malta.
A brilliant Star wars set with star shells breaking, and writing the word ‘MALTA’ with 40ft mines across the waterfront. But the highlight of this set was the ‘DARK FLASH’ really weird. Just like a normal load flash BUT no visible explosion. Just a black sky with noise.?????

Third pyro –musical competitive display : ‘Reflexus’ by Luso Pirotecnia of Portugal.
Fast paced display with lots of candles, shells, and mines. Nice falling leaf shells and a loud finale.

What a fantastic night! But now was the unenvied trek up the endless slopes and steps to the hotel.


Sunday 30th April

Up at 7am for breakfast, and then out to catch the coach to the firework factories. We would like to give a special thank you at this point to Toni, his son Clint and Joe for organising the trip. Also on the coach were Bigbang and his partner, the boys and girls from Jubilee Fireworks, Orzella, and two really nice guys from Pyrotechnics Guild International San Francisco.
Our first journey lasted only about 20 minuets and took us to St Joseph Firework Factory, Ghaxaq. The welcome we received was fantastic; lots of smiling faces keen to talk pyro. We were free to wander around with our videos and cameras, and talk pyro with the volunteers. The factory comprised of two open compounds, a covered area, a tearoom and six lockups.

For those who don’t know ‘Beraq’ (lightning) is a cylinder about 1” dia by 1.5” long spiked and pasted, side primed with delay and usually filled with chlorate flash.

Lockup 1. Mechanical and set pieces. Girandolas, Maltese cross lance work, wheels, drivers, up to 12” plastic and card hemispheres, one of which was half filled with ‘Beraq’ and 500feet of chain lance work.
Lockup 2. 200bar press, star pumps, drying racks, shells and stars, star sizing tooling and pattern templates.
Lockup 3. 3”-8” mortar shells, 4”-7” cylinder shells, compositions and bags of stars.
Lockup 4. Large finished multibreak shells fitted with pistons and lift charges. The Maltese make a lift charge like a can shell and spike it. Half finished shells with rings of ‘Berak’ for us to look at, and a 15 by 6 foot shelf packed with 3” and 4” finished shells bundled in tens.
Lockup 5. In excess of 4000 finished fireworks in here on shelves and benches.
Lockup 6. Construction materials
In the compound areas there were pasting tables, drying racks (old metal bed frames), priming operations, mortar and frame storage. Not to mention the shed with the noisy cockerel.
Karl and myself split up, but kept bumping into one another to discuss Maltese technique and detail. Karl made good friends with one of the crew, Sam. Sam then arranged a 6” by 2.5ft ‘Berak’ multibreak shell demonstration. A steel mortar fashioned from an old oxygen cylinder was positioned with rocks piled up around it. The shell was inserted and lit. Superb multibreak with large reports. Wow!
It was time to leave St Joseph Fireworks, but not before swapping details with Sam, who said he would come and pick us up tomorrow for a more thorough look around.

Our next stop was Our Lady of Consolation Fireworks Factory, Gudja. Here we found a very similar set-up but a little smaller. One compound with three lockups.
Lockup 1. A massive 19” hemisphere with twenty-four 4” Blue shells inside. This was only one half there were to be forty-eight shells in total. Also here were 7”-8” cylinder shells and 6”-8” ball shells all spiked but waiting pasting.
Lockup 2. ‘Berak’ drying room and multibreak storage.
Lockup 3. Drying room with 2” flash comets, 3”-4” charcoal comets, drying blackmatch, chemicals, stars of various sizes, half finished cylinders with stars wedged in, serpents, time fuse, spoolettes and flash inserts.
In the compound was burst and filler drying in the sun, tube storage pasting facilities and 12” ball shells drying.
We left Our Lady of Consolation Fireworks and headed back to Valletta. Once there it was a case of pick up the lights and head back to the tunnel. We made our way down to the fort and entered the tunnel with headlights on and video running. The first chamber we came across was a disused WW2 gun emplacement, with only a small shaft of light penetrating. It was then down the main tunnel for about 200m, climbing over rocks and old cable. We emerged to dogs barking in a large courtyard, and then realised we were inside Fort St Elmo. We made our way to the upper levels very warily because there was not a sole in sight. After a good look around we emerged from the main gate to a Gatekeeper who was not happy and shouting “No Entry” at us. We made our apologies and went for a beer :blush: . After the beer it was down to the harbour, where stilt walkers and marching bands performed. We meet up with Bigbang and bump into Sam, Jesmond and the rest of the St Joseph crew to watch the show.

Showtime:

Fourth pyro-musical display: ‘Illuminating our Grand Harbour” by the St. Michael Fireworks Factory – Lija, Malta

Hugh shell breaks, deafening bottom shots and superb blue comets with gold glitter tails. Multibreak shells with three colour rings ‘Berak’ and micro star rings. We were standing near the boys who made these shell and they were more than happy with the results.

A display of traditional ‘One-by-One’ Fireworks “Multi-break cracker shells” (murtali tal-beraq ikkuluriti) by St. Catherine Fireworks Factory,
Zurrieq, Malta and the Lily Fireworks Factory – Mqabba, Malta

Another fantastic display of traditional Maltese shells.

Ground fireworks by the Lourdes Fireworks Factory of San Gwann, Malta
Mechanical ground fireworks by the La Stella Fireworks Factory – Gudja, Malta

Just as good as yesterdays, nine mechanical wheels. Absolutely amazing engineering. Every part of these is handmade, even the cogs and universal joints. They just look like Kaleidoscopes.

Fifth pyro-musical competitive display: “Flaming flowers over the Mediterranean” by the15th August Fireworks Factory – Mosta, Malta
Red strobes, comets, lovely multibreak shells timed superbly well.

Final and non-competitive pyro-display: “The Power of Fire” by Orzella Fireworks Company, Italy
Ozzella put on a fine display, including parachutes with stars on string suspended beneath, even the parachutes were illuminated with a lance inside. They also floated pyro balloons across the harbour in front of the crowd. Just to top it all, after a breathtaking finale, the tyres on the barges were alight in about for places.

Monday May 1st

May 1st in Malta is Labour Day. We emerged from our hotel to find people everywhere waving red flags and sounding air horns. Huge speaker stacks were erected in Freedom Square ready for the afternoon and evening party. After a walk around and lunch we met with Sam in his pickup truck. Off back to St Joseph Fireworks to talk some pyro. We arrive to find all the boys busy at work pasting, nosing and priming. We walk around taking notes, drawing diagrams and taking measurements. From the factory we can see Sams village which has its flags flying. Sam suggests we go to his village club and we agree. The building is fantastic, all marble, painted frescos and ornate grand entrance stairs. In Malta the villagers are very proud of their heritage, the club was entirely built by volunteers, as are all the fireworks. The firework styles and techniques have been handed down through generations since the 16th century.
Sam then took us off to a party on the NW point of the island, which turned out to be a massive outdoor Rave, with about 8000 people. Karl was ok, but I felt a little old :D Here we met the guys from Unionband who we had a great time with. Apparently this rave happens once a month with some of the worlds top D.J’s performing. We make our way home about midnight when we finally find the truck, and hit the sack for the last time.

What an amazing weekend. It was great to meet Andy ‘Bigbang’, the people of Malta were fantastic, friendly and most hospitable. We would like to thank everyone who made this a superb holiday.

Paul & Karl

(Photos and video will be uploaded in this section from Karl’s server shortly)

Edited by chemicalwazi, 03 May 2006 - 08:49 PM.

"The Saltpeter is the Soule, the Sulphur the Life, and the Coales the Body of it"

#2 Richard H

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Posted 03 May 2006 - 06:08 PM

Excellent stuff chaps! Sounds like you had fun and learn't a few things too.

#3 chemicalwazi

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Posted 04 May 2006 - 06:54 AM

Here are the Photos and Videos :D

http://www.freepgs.c...man/Malta 2006/
"The Saltpeter is the Soule, the Sulphur the Life, and the Coales the Body of it"

#4 ir-russu

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Posted 04 May 2006 - 09:09 AM

I am really happy that you enjoyed the show ..it was fantastic !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

#5 Richard H

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Posted 04 May 2006 - 12:51 PM

Account Suspended according to the link. I find all these free photo / video websites diabolically s**t in general!

#6 karlfoxman

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Posted 04 May 2006 - 03:09 PM

Bah!! It seems I went 10mb over my allowance, so without telling me the suspended it. I will try to sort this out so please bear with me! Oh and by the way, I think your correct Richard they are all S**T. Sorry folks!

#7 Spyrotechnics

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Posted 04 May 2006 - 03:23 PM

sounds like you had a ball

anyone got a clip of the "dark salute"??

#8 karlfoxman

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Posted 04 May 2006 - 03:33 PM

Yeah I have, PM your email and i will send it. Its a multibreak beraq shell, that has dark flash beraq. Dark forces upon us!! :D

#9 marelnic

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Posted 04 May 2006 - 11:36 PM

thanks for all pyro guys who showed up in MALTA, I'm a pyro tech myself and one of those who manufactured the "invisible bang" form st Mary fire works factory MQABBA,
the ones that we won the competion,
really wanna say thanks to all who enjoyed and supported us all, the best pyro show need yet to come on the 14th of AUGUST in our village this year, we are going to celabrate big and do that yearly famous display
not for 10 mins, but its gonna be for 2 hrs of non stop incredible shots, all syncronized with music,

#10 karlfoxman

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Posted 05 May 2006 - 06:06 AM

The set they gave was out of this world and I am glad I was able to see it in real life. Malta is such a lovely place and the people are fantastic, smiles in the streets and there is so much to do. Cant wiat to go back for the BIG one!

Here is the link to a clip of these shells in action

Video

#11 karlfoxman

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Posted 05 May 2006 - 05:47 PM

Ok guys, take a look at this vid HERE How is it done? Is it shells susspended just above water line with no lift charges?

Its an extract from th St Mary's show.

Edited by karlfoxman, 05 May 2006 - 05:47 PM.


#12 JamesH

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Posted 05 May 2006 - 10:10 PM

Karl and Paul, thanks for sharing the photos with us all!
I found the spiking of the round shells particularly interesting.

Edited by JamesH, 05 May 2006 - 10:11 PM.

HE WHO HATH ONCE SMELT THE SMOKE IS NE'ER AGAIN FREE

#13 karlfoxman

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Posted 06 May 2006 - 11:30 AM

Yes it is rather interesting, I find it amazing the way the Maltese apply their own methods for constructing shells of Chinese origin and the Chinese apply their own methods for cylindrical shell design. These spiked ball shells used what looked like the type of twine you use in gardening. Its not very strong, and yes we did take some samples :D Im trying to get them to send some of their built can shell cases and various other parts, not filled with any composition of course. Be nice for the UKPS to have samples of other countries pyro casings.

#14 karlfoxman

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Posted 06 May 2006 - 11:42 AM

Oh and here is the video for the shell test just outside the firework factory.....cheers guys!

Video of shell test

#15 Pretty green flames

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Posted 07 May 2006 - 04:27 AM

Excelent stuff lads.




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