The Carnival will be held over two weekends instead of one this year, in a bid to turn the event into an added tourist attraction for Gozo.

The Gozo Carnival 2006 will kick off on Friday 17 February and come to an end on Tuesday 28.

The programme is structured to coordinate all the Carnival activities that normally take place in different villages in Gozo during this time of year.

This has been possible due to the collaboration that the organising committee at the Gozo Ministry found in several local councils in Gozo, who agreed to shift their programme accordingly for one regional Gozo Carnival to take place.

New regulations have been adopted for Gozo Carnival 2006 including the points-eligibility of participants in all competition categories resulting in the awarding of possibly higher prizes to the best entries according to established criteria.

Winners will be declared according to placing in categories instead of individual placing.

This means that there could be more than one participant in each competition that qualifies for the first category and hence benefit from the maximum prize.

The new regulations have resulted in a considerable number of participants in all competitions in Victoria, with six adult dance and costume companies, two children dance and costume companies, three Hilarious companies, one set of grotesque masks and five floats of different dimensions as well as 16 school dance and costume competitions.

An exhibition portraying aspects of Carnival will again be organised this year at the Gozo Ministry exhibition hall as from Saturday 11 February.