‘Tourism minister for the North’: PL Marsaxlokk councillor furious over fireworks festival snub

Updated at 3:38pm with Tourism Minister statement

Labour Marsaxlokk councillor Daniel Zerafa is taking Tourism minister Clayton Bartolo to task over unfulfilled promises that the Fireworks Festival will be moved back to Marsaxlokk.

Zerafa, who dubbed Bartolo the “Tourism minister for the North”, said he met with officials from the Malta Tourism Authority two weeks ago who told him that they will organise the mechanical ground fireworks show in Marsaxlokk instead.

“The were finding every excuse to not have the actual fireworks show [in Marsaxlokk],” he said, adding that the council did not object to having the ground fireworks display in the locality.

A ministry spokesperson told MaltaToday that Marsaxlokk is not an ideal place to hold a fireworks festival display due to an animal sanctuary situated 150m away from where the fireworks would be set off.

However, Zerafa pointed out that a fireworks show is put up every year at the Marsaxlokk village festa, with communication with the nearby sanctuary, showing that the locality is capable of organising a safe fireworks display in line with all legal requirements.

“[The minister] doesn’t contest this district, so he has no votes to lose,” he said.

“Whenever the Fireworks Festival was held, and every problem and court case was solved, the overall spending was between €100,000-€120,000. They’re finding this excessive, but they had no problem finding money to bring a foreign clown over and pay him €120,000 to ridicule our country in front of the world,” he said, referencing the amount of paid to comedian David Walliams to host the Malta Film Awards 2022.

The councillor also critised Bartolo for boasting of attracting three million tourists to Malta. “Half of these people don’t even set a foot in Marsaxlokk.”

He proposed introducing a “city tax” of one euro against every tourist that comes to the islands, through which local councils could be funded.

This is not the first time that Bartolo’s preference for his home locality has been flagged. In 2022, the tourism ministry said it could not sponsor a fireworks display for New Year’s Eve celebrations in Valletta, but eventually sponsored an identical display in Mellieħa.

Later in the day, Bartolo published a short video explaining his reservations for not having a fireworks display in Marsaxlokk.

“I’m a person that loves animals as much as people, especially dogs. And I know that, in the past, when fireworks were set off near the Island Sanctuary, a number of dogs passed through trauma."

"I absolutely don’t agree with the advice I was given from someone who spoke to the media, for those dogs to be given calming medication and put to sleep. What would happen if a dog dies because of this medication or because of the fireworks festival? Who will shoulder that responsibility?"

"This is why I suggested this compromise, so that while we can safeguard animals and dogs, on the other hand we will make sure that Marsaxlokk sees activity throughout the fireworks festival.”