Living for Carnival
by Darrell Pace

Everyone has a passion for something. Some never miss a football match on TV; others spend more time at the gymnasium that they do at home. Brian Bonnici lives his life preparing for five particular days of the year.

I have known Brian for a good sixteen years, since we started secondary school. When we were kids the only thing that seemed to be on his mind throughout the year was Carnival (with the exception of a short period when the feast of St. Philip in Zebbug was celebrated). In June with the yearly exams around the corner, he'd spend hours upon hours, particularly during English language lessons, designing grotesque masks which would be seeing the light of day some eight months later with the advent of Carnival.

He used to live for Carnival. And, not surprisingly, he still does.

The only difference is that Brian has upgraded his efforts and has grown from designing grotesque masks that compete in the lesser categories of Carnival, to putting together fully fledged floats, the size of a tug-boat.

Brian and his uncle, Raymond Zerafa lead a group of no less than fifteen persons who design and build a float every year. Most of them gather at the workshop in Mtarfa every day. When I visited them a little more than two weeks ahead of the start of Carnival 2002, all bar two were there. The atmosphere was a little hectic, but everyone was focused on the job at hand.

Ray and Brian are submitting their float, entitled "Strieh u Tpaxxa fil-Kamra l-Baxxa" in Section C for floats. They are hoping to win the section this year in order to graduate to Section B. Their entry, last year's won second place.

The float was far from finished when I drove up to Mtarfa, but Brian was quite confident that the work would be finished on schedule. The work on "Strieh u Tpaxxa…" started in June but work on the designs had started as early as March.

Brian said that though he was the person who drew the sketches of the float, he merely integrated the ideas of the whole group. "We decide what the float should look like together," he told me. "It's a kind of mini-democracy in here. That way, everyone will feel that the float is his or hers, because he or she contributed to it from its inception."

He said however, that a float can only be successful if it is a little satirical or controversial. "Last year we took on the church," he said. "We took our inspiration from the controversy surrounding the cancellation of village festas by the Curia," he added. "Every year we do our best to break away from the usual themes that characterise Maltese floats and do whatever we can to cause a little bit of noise. We believe that this is the only way how we can keep Carnival alive. Otherwise it will become a tradition that appeals to no-one except children," he claimed. "Last year we almost lost the second prize. We were inches away from being disqualified because we wanted to represent the Archbishop on our float," he said unremorsefully. "Mind you, what we do with our floats is nothing compared to what the Italians do in Viareggio…I'd be banned for life if I were to put a politician on my float," he said.

Anyway, this year's theme on the float is… wait for it… sex! "Last year saw the launch of Malta's first soft porn magazine. We thought of paying a tribute to these people," he said with a smile. He would not reveal any further details on the theme, but during my stroll around the workshop I saw figures of a man having a bath, a large-breasted woman, a mechanised apple that splits in half and what looked like a demon. Now guess what it's about.

Brian and Raymond's team is made up of people from all walks of life. There are three women who can handle a man's job such as painting. They also take care of some of the costumes of the dancers who will be on the float during the parades.

Jeffrey Friggieri, a 28-year-old drydocks worker takes care of the metal work of the float. His job as a welder at the shipyard makes putting together the metal skeleton of the float a piece of cake to his expert hands. He also takes care of ingeniously putting together the mechanised parts of the float.

Jimmy Agius is the cook of the team. Brian tells me that Jimmy's job is extremely important for the group since many of them spend very long hours at the workshop and only go home for a night's rest.

Raymond Zerafa, the twenty-year veteran member of the team, is the sculptor. He is responsible for giving shape to the float and painting it. Raymond prides himself that he started dating his wife during Carnival, twenty years ago. Roderick, his son at thirteen years of age, is the youngest contributor to the float.

The final assembly of the float will start two Wednesdays preceding the start of Carnival. Myself and the MaltaMedia crew wish Brian, Ray and their team the best of luck.