Feast committees going for a modern tool to market their event

Traditional Maltese feasts celebrating the patron saint of the town and often going back hundreds of years are now being marketed on the same lines as other consumer products.

A typical instance is the feast of St Dominic in Vittoriosa, which will be celebrated between Wednesday and Sunday next week. D-Day will fall on Sunday but the full celebrations will start in earnest on Friday next week.

Lauro Abela, vice-president of the Prince of Wales Own Band Club of Vittoriosa, who comes from a marketing background, said he had suggested the use of billboards five years ago - that is how long this form of marketing had been used by the feast committee.

The billboards - they have already been used by, among others, the committees of the feasts of St Lawrence also in Vittoriosa, and St Dominic in Valletta - are designed and printed in Malta and cost about Lm300 each. This year's billboards were sponsored by Source Creative Ltd.

"Billboards are definitely one of the most effective tools in the marketing manager's tool box. The feast is a fabulous product both for the locals and for visitors and the more people come to join in the revelry the merrier the feast will be.

"Billboards sell the feast by reminding former residents of Vittoriosa who have moved out of the marine city of this annual nostalgic appointment with their childhood.

"On the other hand, visitors will experience first-hand the exuberance of the Maltese in marking such celebrations," Mr Abela argued.

He added that the billboards - two in Marsa and one in Msida and which reach people from all walks of life - are being utilised also to promote the cultural side of Vittoriosa.

Mr Abela argued that he could not understand how the Malta Tourism Authority did not help in the organisation of feasts when it is such a crowd puller and a fount of popular culture.

Last year the billboard promoting the feast of St Dominic featured a magnificent aerial photo of Fort St Angelo and its environs.

"This year the designers opted for a sepia picture of a historic landmark now lost - the Clock Tower.

"We hope that by projecting these images, we would be enhancing the image of Vittoriosa and invite festa goers and visitors to come and enjoy the band marches and the other outdoor activities, not to mention the historic sites while enjoying a relaxing evening at one of the charming corners around the bastions that shelter Il-Birgu, as Vittoriosa is known in the vernacular, Mr Abela said.

The clock tower owes its origins to a watch tower back in the early Middle Ages. In the mid-16th century, at the time of the Knights of St John, a clock was incorporated on it and over the years it became one of the more well-known landmarks in the area.

The structure was extensively damaged during World War II when the German air force carried out fierce attacks on the Three Cities when the aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious was berthed in Grand Harbour.

The Knight of the Order of St John, Balbi di Corregio, mentioned the tower in the diary he kept of the Great Siege of 1565.

Most elderly persons still remember the tower, that stood a couple of metres away from the Victory monument on the same square. Most of the clock's mechanism was stored and is now kept at the local council.

One of the clock's hands is exhibited at the Vittoriosa Museum. The Cottonera Rehabilitation Project plans to reconstruct a replica of the clock tower and is awaiting approval from the Malta Environment and Planning Authority.