Goa Amchem! Goenkar Revelers Party Hard with Tourists during ‘Carnaval 2018’

Goa Amchem! Goenkar Revelers Party Hard with Tourists during ‘Carnaval 2018’

Panjim-Goa: One thing for sure- Goenkars (Goans) know how to party hard- and for that matter the fun, frolic, music, dance, sumptuous food and cocktails was no exception on the kick off (First day) of “Goa Carnaval (Carnival) where the float parade was flagged off by Tourism Minister Manohar Azgaonkar in the presence of Panjim Mayor Surendra Furtado. The King Momo tableau led the parade, and nearly 20,000 people, including Goans and tourists, throng the venue and witnessed it. King Momo Bruno Azaredo read out his decree of fun and frolic on Saturday 10 February, but for the thousands of revellers who had lined up the Carnival parade route, there were also lessons of social issues that the colourful parade brought them.

With this year’s Carnival theme being ‘Clean and Beautiful Goa’, many floats had messages on the environment, quite a few around the theme of open defecation free and garbage free State. One of these floats, presented by anti-coal activists demanded ‘No Coal Hub’ in Goa, while others called out to ‘Save Our Bonvol Lake’, ‘Kalapur PDA Naka’, ‘Save Hills & Fields,’ ‘Amche Goem NITOLL Sambalum-ia’, making Carnival a platform to spread messages on burning issues. It is learnt that 83 entries under five categories with Goa Police participating for the first time took part in the parade. The police float attempted to create awareness on the use of helmets, following traffic rules, dialling 100 while in distress and sending out a message against alcohol consumption and smoking in public places.

“While these send out a social message, the organisers seem to have forgotten that Carnival is not all about awareness. It is about beautiful floats, good music and dance. There should be more entertainment and creativity,” said a youth in his twenties. “People come to the Carnival to see a visually appealing procession, but they are given the same sights every year. While these floats must be lauded for their artistic efforts, it cannot go unnoticed that they lacked in grandeur this year,” said Kevin D’Mello, a Goan actor. But this year the Carnival parade route being moved to a different location had disappointed many tourists, who had to walk a couple of miles after they have parked their vehicles or being dropped off. Carnival this year turned out to be a damp squib as tableaus devoid of novelty floated through the spacious Miramar-Caranzalem Road for the first time.

In an effort to de-congest the city the festival parade this year had its starting point near Goa Science Centre, unlike the usual DB road. While the regular attendees got to see a change of location, there was no change of scene in terms of the presentation of these tableaus. Thousands of people turned up at the new festival location. However, on being received by the average looking floats, many of them decided to move out of the venue earlier than usual. As the event came to a close, citizens who had parked their vehicles in various nooks and corners at Campal, Miramar and Caranzalem, simultaneously exited the area. However, there was a bottleneck of two and four-wheelers on the road leading towards the Miramar beach circle.

Fatorda-Margao also threw a big party on the First day of Carnival, with “Back To The Streets” bash at Opinion Poll Square, near Ravindra Bhavan Circle-Fatorda. Bands in action were “The Slipping Chairs” from Colombo-Sri Lanka; “The Camel Riders” (World Music); and Goa’ popular band “Forefront”- and the party went on till the wee hours with Dj Navin belting out a few popular Bollywood, Techno/EDM and dance hits. Bunch of Mangaloreans were spotted at the Goo carnival- and few of them were captured by Team Mangalorean on camera.

Margao will have its parade on 11th February, 4.00 pm onwards; Ponda on 11th February, 4.00 pm onwards; Vasco on 12th February, 4.00 pm onwards; Curchorem on 12th February, 4.00 pm onwards; and Mapusa on 13th February, 4.00 pm onwards. So the next three days will be full of “Eat, Drink and Make Merry” before the Lent starts as the majority of the Christians have to abstain from alcohol and meat. Until then Viva carnival-Viva Goa!

Reporting from Panjim-Goa: by Alfie D’souza- Team Mangalorean

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