Unsung, unwept, unnoticed even. A week ago yesterday the king made his last exit.

King Carnival in other words made his last exit from Valletta’s City Gate.

While Valletta may be a city built by gentlemen for gentlemen, its City Gate was reportedly built with King Carnival in mind.

Even then, it generated a shock wave resembling a tsunami of disapproval. One remembers graffiti scrawled on its pristine white walls soon after inauguration: Qisu bieb ta’ garaxx (Like a garage door). Popular discontent was so great the gate was never finished – its niches stand empty on either side when they were planned for fountains.

The funny thing is that King Carnival passed through its portals only rarely for the route of the Carnival procession was soon changed and, with the focus of the celebrations being in Freedom Square, the King entered and exited from Castille Square.

Many times over the past years, as discussions and controversies erupted about the plans for City Gate and Freedom Square, many of us must have thought that without the Freedom Square setting, Carnival would no longer be attractive.

But this year’s change, for all the massive disruption as regards public transport, the cold and the rain, did not seem to damp people’s love for Carnival. And the setting with the Tritons’ Fountain as backdrop was lovely. Indeed, Carnival, if well planned and executed, can still be as attractive, if not more, than when it was held in Freedom Square. The King does not have to appear framed by City Gate for him to enjoy his four-day majesty!

As great as Carnival was (for you cannot damp people’s enthusiasm, even with the shameful killings being committed in Libya), it was surpassed by far by the sheer chaos created by the inopportune move of the public transport terminus from City Gate to the park and ride area.

First of all, this is an area many bus users do not even know exists since they most probably do not own a car. Secondly, the change was not advertised properly at all so when it happened people were shocked and lost.

Only those who went on the spot to the park and ride area (this seems to exclude journalists and reporters for it could have been a field day for them but wasn’t) can vouch for the sheer confusion at most times there.

Buses were turning in tight circles, endangering each other and the crowds of confused passengers caught in the middle. The most confused of all were the tourists – they never imagined they would find themselves in such a chaos and imminent danger to life and limb.

To try and get some information was next to impossible. The only thing near any authority was a man with a handwritten messenger in his hand scribbling away which bus was doing what. People got grunts and nods of head instead of proper responses.

We hope someone from Arriva was there so he could laugh his head off. Hopefully, when the next disruption comes along, that is on 3 July when the new bus service begins, things will be far better organised. The people at park and ride – and that means the bus drivers, the dispatchers, the TM people standing around – had no idea how to organise matters. There was no ticket booth nor information desk. There was nowhere where people could sit and wait.

Whoever decided this (was it the Malta Council for Culture and the Arts which is responsible for Carnival or was it Transport Malta?) did not think through the consequences of the principal decision which was to turn the area around the Tritons’ Fountain into the Carnival plaza.

At the same time, however, all this showed that the country and its government do care for Carnival, albeit in a rather strange way. We say strange because we suffered all this City Gate disruption just because of Carnival but then the Carnival organisers still make do with innumerable garages, vacant lots and whatnot because they have not yet been assigned a proper place where they can build the multi-coloured Carnival floats. Or rather, to be more exact, the sites they were offered were too far for them (considering that for many long years they had been accustomed to work inside Fort St Elmo, probably a stone’s throw from where they live).

This neglect mirrors the other neglect which is now focusing on the same area – the government has pushed the Monti people down Merchants Street and now from St James Ditch to the park and ride area. For a variety of reasons the Monti hawkers have not had a clear Sunday there – mostly because of driving rain but before that because of disagreement with the government imposition. Possibly the first time they use the area will be next Sunday.

But equally one wonders why the government had to act so arrogantly with the Monti hawkers and then accept, meek like a lamb, impositions from local councils and other organisations which seemed to suddenly get a veto power over the Monti. There are ample open spaces where the Monti could have been moved to – even the two car parks next to Phoenicia would possibly have been acceptable – instead of this beyond of the beyond.