It’s the same old story, year after year.

Each time Carnival festivities are held, and more so when they are disrupted by adverse weather conditions, the people who are involved in the building of floats complain that they do not have the facilities (read space) where to prepare for the days of fun that precede the start of Lent.

This year, the weather was kind between Friday evening and Monday afternoon, and the events scheduled for those areas went on without a hitch. But as from Monday evening and all through Tuesday, the last day of Carnival, the rain practically did not stop. In the end, the so-called grand finale had to be cancelled.

That same Tuesday, Carnival enthusiasts called on the government to provide adequate shelters where the floats could be constructed and stored. For many years, different governments promised to provide such facilities, but it seems that once the Carnival days are over, this problem is forgotten… until the following Carnival.

This year, the enthusiasts have come up with a different proposal. This is the construction of what they are describing as Carnival hangars, 22 to keep the floats and another five for dancers, costume makers and stores for other equipment. Tongue in cheek, they said that this would cost a fraction of what was going to be spent on the extension of the museum at St John’s Co-Cathedral.

They also know who will build these hangars – a Spanish company with expertise in the field, which can finish the project in three months, well in time for the preparation of next year’s Carnival. This, they said, would be a practical and fast solution.

The enthusiasts, under the banner of the Ghaqda Partecipanti tal-Karnival (Carnival Participants Association) seem to have done their homework pretty well. They have also suggested potential sites for what they are terming a Carnival Village.

They are also preoccupied by the planned project for the regeneration of Fort St Elmo, which is used for the building of some of the floats. Once the project starts, they will have nowhere to build their floats, and they are afraid that the number of participants will drop.

Another problem they are concerned with is the City Gate project, which would mean that the heart of the Carnival festivities will be “lost” until the project is completed.

It is clear that the Carnival enthusiasts are seeing bleak years ahead of them. It must be admitted that the standards of the floats has more or less remained constant over the years, and many think that the people who build the floats have run out of ideas. There is little which can be described as new in our Carnival. The lack of political satire, for one thing, does not encourage more people to turn up, while the fact that dances seem to be a repetition of what was seen in previous years is certainly not an attraction.

Added to this, the fact that local councils have started to organise their own mini-Carnival, while the one in Nadur gains in popularity year after year, has negatively affected the Valletta Carnival.

All these factors are putting the future of the Valletta Carnival at risk, and the enthusiasts are asking whether the authorities will be giving their support to keep it alive. Of course, the government has other priorities and it is likely that the problem will be shelved for another year.

To go back to the Nadur Carnival, the chaos that grips this Gozitan small village during the Carnival days raises a number of questions. While everyone has a right to entertainment and there is no doubt that there is much more creativity among those who take part, some form of control should be exercised – the laissez-faire attitude sometimes goes beyond the limit of public decency.