An official government statement declared on New Year’s Day that the number of people who attended an end of year activity in St George’s Square in Valletta was estimated to have reached more than 50,000.

It is always difficult to establish how many people make up a crowd each time a mass activity is held. Unless tickets are sold and one can really say how many people paid to attend a particular event, it is hard to calculate exactly. What are hundreds for some could be thousands for others. It all depends on the perspective and, let’s say it, also bias.

It happens during political mass meetings, with parties doing their best to show a high attendance which indicates strong support. The use of drones has become predominant in the past years, and it often happens that the opposing party uses aerial footage to show empty pockets and sparsely filled areas to downplay the other side’s euphoria.

The first question that is often asked to people who attend a political event by others who missed it is: “Were there many people?” And it is many times followed up with: “More than the last time?” or “More than them (the other party)”?

When, then, NGOs hold protest events or other activities, the extent of the support shown is measured in the number of people who take part. The number is often inflated, for obvious reasons. The attendance of 1,000 persons sounds better than an attendance of 300, no?

This seems to have also been the case for the New Year’s Eve event held to ring in 2024 in a show of music, fireworks and other entertainment. For many years, Malta lacked such an activity similar to what has been held for decades in top cities around the world. It was a good idea, and certainly a popular one, to organise our own end of year event in Malta’s capital city.

And we believe that it was successful – it has always been so, and many missed it when it was not held during the Covid-19 years. The photos and footage that were taken on Sunday night and early Monday showed a St George’s Square and side streets in the vicinity filled with people making merry, dancing to the tunes of the entertainers and generally relishing the fun.

Not everyone enjoyed themselves, as comments on the social media included complaints about the sound system, lack of safety, people getting sick and, of course, overcrowding issues, traffic problems and parking difficulties.

But was there really a need to officially say that 50,000 attended, quickly adding that this also included many tourists?

Who made such an estimate? How were the people counted? Can St George’s Square really take in 50,000 people at one go? Is this just an exaggeration to raise the feel-good factor? Was there a political undertone in the approximation – as if to say, see, we’re such a happy country where nothing is going wrong and everybody is having fun? Was the 50,000 figure given to boost the government at the end of a difficult year full of scandals and at the start of another when an election is to take place?

The debate continues.