Much like Malta’s local festa aficionados, carnival enthusiasts undertake a year-long labour of love on a voluntary basis, fuelled only by pure passion.
Carnival director Jason Busuttil is one of those people who lives and breathes the Maltese carnival.
“Preparations for Malta’s annual winter carnival begin in summer when the subjects and themes are chosen for the floats.
“Those tackling political satire in particular have to start planning ahead to pick the issues in order to weave a narrative around their float.”
The summer months have been particularly busy for carnival enthusiasts lately, as the summer carnival returned in 2013.
“While they are preparing for the summer carnival, work on the winter carnival goes on in parallel. The peak is obviously November and December as those are the final months when everything must come together.”
Funding the fun
Mr Busuttil explains that the ever increasing competition between enthusiasts means that designing and building floats is getting costlier every year.
“There is some funding from the Ministry for Culture, but not much. We incentivise carnival enthusiasts to find corporate sponsors on the front part of their floats.
“If it weren’t for these sponsors we would not see the high-level of float design that we see today. The cost of these floats runs into thousands.”
“The competition is ever growing with a number of youngsters joining the scene. Given this increase in competition, everyone wants their float to be top-notch, which means more money ends up being spent which in turn raises the quality of the carnival.”
Mr Busuttil was coy when asked how much the average float costs.
“Floats have become very sophisticated these days with a lot of internal mechanisms and moving parts. It is no longer a case of simply pulling a rope in order for a hand to move...
“We do not really like to say how much these floats cost. I can tell you that this year there is one particular float that has cost almost €30,000.”
“It may sound unbelievable but it is true. Once you get into it and start buying hydraulic lifters and other mechanisms, the costs start spiralling. Granted it is a one-off investment as you are not going to throw these things away after using them, but such is the competition that everyone is always looking to up their game.”
Whatever the weather
Enthusiasts often spend more time looking at the sky rather than their creations in the final days leading up to carnival.
“I do not agree with moving carnival from its traditional February slot. Most carnivals around the world take place in February. All that was really missing in Malta was a place to store the floats in case of rain.
He says that had the government not offered the Malta Shipbuilding site for carnival enthusiasts to build their floats this year, “half the carnival would have been over before it began”.
“We saved the floats this year as they were assembled on site at Malta Shipbuilding. You have to understand that these floats are made piece by piece in small garages and then put together like a big jigsaw puzzle.
“For the past two years we managed to reach an agreement with [Economy Minister] Chris Cardona to let us use the shipbuilding site.
“From next year, this site will no longer be available so we will have to find an alternative location until the carnival village is completed.”
The €6 million investment by the government in the carnival village will mean that enthusiast will be able to assemble their floats in dedicated warehouses at the site indentified in Marsa.
Last week, Culture Minister Owen Bonnici said the new complex is scheduled to be completed by 2018.
Mr Busuttil says a carnival museum has been incorporated into the plans in order to reflect the carnival’s 500-year history in Malta.
“In 20 year’s time, carnival in Malta will celebrate its 500th anniversary, making it one of the oldest and biggest celebrations in the country. The government took, what is in our opinion, a courageous step. It did not just opt for hangars to accommodate carnival enthusiasts at the new complex.
“A number of the arts have been factored into the same project, meaning that carnival enthusiasts will get to interact with contemporary, musical and dance artists. This will serve to bolster carnival’s potential as this mixture between artists will lead it to grow and raise its potential to a whole new level.”
The finer points of the agreement between carnival enthusiasts and the government for the carnival village still have to be hammered out.
“The carnival village needs to work on a self-sustaining basis. Building 20 warehouse spaces for carnival enthusiasts without getting anything back does not make sense. There will be space for bands to practise and a 200-seat amphitheatre.
“Anyone wishing to express an art form will have the space in which to do so. Now, whether this is rented out or subsidised by the government remains to be seen. What is sure is that funds need to be generated in order to turn the project into a success.”
Poking fun at politicians
“We received good feedback from politicians last year, so much so that some even asked when it was their turn to be satirised. This is how politics works. This year we will have two floats satirising politics. It is gradually being eased in, and I believe the Maltese have already accepted the concept.”