Owen Bonnici rehashes Carnival Village project that had to open in 2017

Culture Minister Owen Bonnici, one of the longest-surviving ministers in Labour’s government, once again announced the development of a ‘new’ Cultural Hub in Marsa at a press conference.

While presenting this as an innovative project, it is the same project that the same minister has been promising carnival enthusiasts since 2013 but has never managed to implement.

Alongside Festivals Malta Chairman Aaron Zahra, Prime Minister Robert Abela’s canvasser and his events manager at Castille, Minister Bonnici announced that he had secured some €15 million in EU funds to create the cultural complex in Marsa.

While he refused to give a timeline for the new project’s completion, Minister Bonnici made no reference to the fact that the project he was announcing had to open its doors in 2017 – seven years ago.

Carnival enthusiasts who had been waiting for this project since 2013, as they currently have no place where to store and work on their floats, described Minister Bonnici’s announcement to The Shift as “the latest propaganda exercise by a failed minister who never delivers on his projects.”

A promise in Labour’s 2013 manifesto, the Art and Cultural Complex in a neglected area in Marsa, was to be built to house warehouses for carnival enthusiasts and a music rehearsal area for Maltese bands.

To accomplish this project, Owen Bonnici even hired singer Willie Mangion as his consultant. Mangion was paid for years, but no progress was ever achieved. The singer, who has now relocated to Tenerife, had given a helping hand to Labour, appearing on propaganda billboards for its electoral campaign.

Tenders were issued and excavation works were carried out in Marsa, but the project was abandoned and never completed.

In the meantime, millions of EU funds earmarked for this project had to be diverted onto other projects, as Malta was at risk of losing them altogether due to the failed project.

Following years of criticism, Owen Bonnici announced in 2017 that “the carnival village dream was only one step away.”

In 2019, state broadcaster PBS, controlled by the same minister, announced that the Marsa Centre would be ready in 2020.

Yet nothing was done, leading carnival enthusiasts to lambast Minister Bonnici on social media and call him “King Carnival” following this year’s carnival, at which he again repeated his promise.