The carnival association has called for this year’s celebrations to be postponed from February to April, well out of the way of the electoral campaign, but its proposal was rejected by the Government.
With the campaign starting officially on January 7 for a March 9 election, the carnival dates of February 8 to 12 will fall in the middle of the political frenzy.
The Malta Association of Carnival Participants appealed to the ministry and council for culture to take an “immediate decision” and announce that for this year only, carnival celebrations would be postponed.
Association president Jason Busuttil said there was a unanimous agreement among members that the celebrations should be moved to after Easter – between April 5 and 9.
The association called on the main political parties to take its suggestion seriously and decide in the best interests of the majority of people, who looked forward to this event.
It said this needed to be an exception to the principle of carnival always being celebrated before Lent. Otherwise the celebrations would be affected in several ways, including logistical ones due to the fact they are held on the Floriana Granaries.
In a statement, the Government pointed out that a lot of tourist operators organised trips around carnival and celebrations were held in several other localities across the country.
It said political parties should make space for carnival celebrations and not the other way round.
The Nationalist Party also came out against the proposal.
It said carnival had its own time slot in the national calendar and it should be the political parties that accommodated carnival celebrations.
The PN said its activities would take a backseat during the five days of carnival, adding this was not the first time the celebrations would take place during an electoral campaign: the PN had accommodated carnival in 2003.
It also encouraged the organisers to take advantage of the circumstances and include political satire in the celebrations.
Asked about this suggestion, Mr Busuttil said that unfortunately, although Culture Minister Mario de Marco had encouraged political satire, and the association had suggested building a satirical Carnival King and another such float, the Malta Council for Culture and the Arts (MCCA) had not created a political satire section in its activities programme.
When asked what would happen to bookings timed around these celebrations, he rejected the idea that there was a strong touristic market driven by carnival.
The Labour Party said it was open to a solution that respected the participants’ wishes and did not object to postponing the carnival activities.
The party was also ready to take the “necessary steps” if the original date was retained.
This situation could have been avoided had there been more consultation with the participants, it added.
In the meantime, the MCCA called on dance troupes to apply for next year’s carnival by January 11.
Applications can be collected from 230, Republic Street, Valletta during office hours or by sending an e-mail to noel.damato@maltaculture.com. More information on 2123 2515 or 2124 7913.