Over 50,000 People Visited St Julian’s And Paceville In Largest St Patrick’s Celebration Yet, Philip Fenech Estimates
Over 50,000 people visited St Julian’s and Paceville yesterday, making it Malta’s largest and smoothest St Patrick’s Day celebration, Paceville Town Centre Management chairman Philip Fenech has estimated.
“This was the first St Patrick’s Day celebration in three years and expectations were extremely high,” Fenech told Lovin Malta, recounting how the previous three had been dampened by COVID-19 restrictions.
He said that the St Patrick’s Day trend so far had been for revellers to gather along the stretch of land between Spinola and Portomaso before flocking to Paceville at around midnight.
However, this year Paceville was extremely busy too, with people packing bars, restaurants and establishments well before midnight.
“I have decades of experience working in the area and I’ve never seen so many people all together in the whole of St Julian’s and Paceville. I believe there must have been over 50,000, with 18,000-20,000 in Paceville and the rest spanning St Julian’s and Spinola.”
View this post on Instagram
A traditional Irish feast, St Patrick’s has ballooned in popularity in Malta in recent years and is now a staple of the party calendar.
Fenech recalled how the celebration had a humble beginning, with a few bars in the area catering for the Irish community and some locals and tourists joining in the fun.
“Over time, we saw the bars were having spillovers and suddenly promoters and operators started organising events because they saw a big demand, but no one knew it was going to grow so big.”
When it grew clear that St Patrick’s was causing chaos in the streets, the authorities started planning in advance, closing main roads off to traffic and ensuring an adequate presence of police and medics.
Fenech said that the authorities improved their management of the party over time, and that this year was the smoothest it has ever been.
View this post on Instagram
“The Chamber of SMEs and the Paceville town centre management had various strategic meetings with police, the St Julian’s local council, LESA and others well in advance to pre-empt any challenges like traffic management and toilets,” he said.
“While the ambience was exceptional and euphoric, there was no irrational behaviour, idiotic drunks or tension and only minor incidents were reported.”
“Traffic management was exceptional too. I’m not saying there wasn’t some traffic slowness at times but all in all it kept moving throughout the night. Every barrier was on standby, with a direct line to the police headquarters, in case an ambulance needed to pass.”
“By the following morning, the streets were cleared of all the rubbish.”
View this post on Instagram
“I would like to thank the police, LESA, the local council, ambulances, the Cleansing Department and St Julian’s residents because I know the event is taxing on them, especially those clusters that live in areas where the vibe was intense.”
“I know it’s not an easy one for them but we were prepared for any challenges. Bar owners abided by the regulations and cooperated a lot, they switched off the music at midnight when we told them to.”
Fenech acknowledged that the celebration has “gone beyond the mission statement of St Patrick’s Day” and has all but lost its Irish flavour.
“At the start there was an element of bars playing Irish music but now it changed completely. There used to be more hats and Irish people too, and whereas Guinness and Irish beer used to be drunk as a priority, the majority now drink whatever they usually drink.”
Did you attend the St Patrick’s Day celebrations yesterday?
READ NEXT: Watch: Unamused Labour MPs Analyse Fake Cheques PN MPs Threw At Them In Parliament
