Downpours send carnival float-makers undercover

Heavy showers yesterday kept the colourful carnival floats from entering the capital as planned and participants are hoping the bad weather forecast for today will not ruin the celebration they have been waiting for all year. The spell of torrential rain and hail over the past couple of days saw float-makers scurry for shelter to the depleted St Elmo fortification in Valletta, which houses stores for some 10 floats. There they wrapped their floats in plastic to protect them from the unforgiving natural elements. Parts of the floats are constructed and painted in the stores but the whole thing comes together outside the fort because the stores are not big enough to hold the entire structure. “You cannot take the floats in and out of the stores just like you would do to a garaged car in bad weather,” Jason Busuttil, whose float – called Brits, featuring John Lennon, Queen Elizabeth II, Pink Floyd and Freddie Mercury – cost about €10,000. “We have been putting the floats together since Sunday but we were badly affected by the rain over the past couple of days. When the floats, made of papier-mâché, get wet you cannot move them as you’d end up with a mushy mess. So we have to wait for...