Carnival participants this morning called for government assistance of €1.5 million to help them erect 27 hangars where they can build their floats.

Speaking at a press conference on Freedom Square, the float-builders said they had been promised a Carnival village for years, but nothing had materialised.

The matter had now become more urgent since plans for the rehabilitation of Fort St Elmo meant they could no longer build their floats there.

The participants said they had been in touch with a Spanish company with which they discussed the building of 27 hangars – 22 to house the floats and five to house grotesque masks and equipment.

In this way, they said, the floats could be built in dedicated space and they could be sheltered from the weather.

They are also calling on the government to provide them with a site between Valletta and Marsa for the purpose and said this could be turned into a Carnival village and an attraction.

They said that the collapse of the proposed extension of the St John’s Co-Cathedral Museum, which would have absorbed €16 million in EU funds, provided an opportunity for some of these funds to be directed to their project.

The float-builders warned that without government support for their proposed project, they might be forced not to participate in Carnival next year.

After their press conference the Carnival participants delivered a letter to the Prime Minister at the Auberge de Castille.