The local council of St Julian’s will be discussing the future of St Patrick’s Day street party, with opinion split as to whether it should continue being held there.

While it was all fun and games for revellers, residents complained that the annual event was a “massive headache”.

About 15 tonnes of bottles, cans and other waste was cleared from St Julian’s over the weekend.

The Cleansing Department in action early the next morning.

Aside from the litter, residents had to deal with urine-soaked tarmac, puddles of vomit outside their front doors and damage to parked cars.

Deputy mayor Albert Buttigieg said it was time the authorities discussed moving the event out of St Julian’s and to another venue more suited to hosting the roughly 30,000 people that flocked to Spinola Bay on Sunday.

“This has already happened in the past. The beer festival, for instance, used to take place in Ta’ Xbiex but when it outgrew the area it was moved to Ta’ Qali. I don’t see why the same cannot be done with St Patrick’s Day,” he said. 

Mayor Guido Dalli, however, said the matter was far more complicated than simply deciding to move the event to another part of the country.

“This is something we will be discussing as a council when we meet. If, say, the government wants to take over organising it and move it to another locality then that is one thing. What is certain is that if it is to remain here, then we need to change certain aspects. But we need to discuss the issue as a whole council and come out with a position,” he said.

For this year’s event, the council brought bar owners together to share street cleaning costs to clear the mounds of bottles, cans and other rubbish left behind.

The Cleansing Department spokesman told Times of Malta that, following discussions with the council and other stakeholders, cleaning up started just a few hours after the partying had ended after midnight.

Twelve employees, equipped with two mechanical sweepers and a water bowser, worked throughout the night to get the roads looking tidy again, with cleaning in some areas carrying on through the next day.

The cleaning bill? About €2,000.

Paceville stalwart and vice president of the Malta Chamber of SMEs – GRTU, Philip Fenech, described the event a success. 

“Considering all those people, there were no major incidents and everything seems to have gone quite smoothly. St Patrick’s Day has become an annual event on the party calendar now,” he said.