Nadur carnival starts this weekend

Carnival will start a week early at Nadur this year.

The local council said it will hold its organised carnival next Sunday afternoon as an experiment to give more time for participants to prepare for the spontaneous carnival the following weekend.

The popularity of the "spontaneous" carnival, with its macabre costumes, eerie atmosphere and satirical masks, has spread well beyond the town in recent years.

The programme of activities starts on Saturday with the Nadur Carnival Queen 2006 and Maltese Carnival Queen 2006 contest in collaboration with Catwalk Productions at the MBC Theatre in Nadur, followed late in the evening by a Carnival Party at La Grotta, Xlendi. Tickets will be available from the door and, at half price, from Nadur local council.

Next Sunday's four-hour programme, in the main square, kick off at 2 p.m. It will feature floats, grotesque masks and various competitions for the best children's and adult's costumes, animals in costume and hilarious dance.

Participants will include Miss Queen Carnival, The Greenfields, Mnarja Band, the playing of traditional musical instruments and King Carnival.

A children's carnival will be held on February 24 at Nadur Primary School followed, in the evening, by the production Lejla tal-Wahx by Etnika and Jimmy U Shabu in a small square behind the church. The production, offering a combination of music, street theatre in "sombre and burlesque" costumes, was specifically written for the Nadur carnival. The show will be repeated on February 25.

The programme closes with the traditional Kukkanja.

The carnival activities reach their climax with the spontaneous carnival in the streets of the town on carnival weekend.