Tons of Fun, Frolic, Food, Music, Dance and Feni at Margao Carnaval Than Panjim?
Tons of Fun, Frolic, Food, Music, Dance and Feni at Margao Carnaval Than Panjim?-Reporting from Margao-Goa
Margao-Goa: Margao-Goa simply rocked this year, with tons of Fun, Frolic, Music, Food and Cocktails than the First Carnival Day bash in the capital city-Panjim. Music, song and dance filled with creativity and tradition kicked off the Carnival Festivities in Margao. “Viva Carnaval” cry echoed the whole parade route by the thousands of people gathered. The streets were adorned with colorful buntings, banners, masks and themed decor. At the floats parade in Margao, Innovative minds were on display at the carnival float parade while at the same time the tendency to caricature even serious matters were also seen. In all 87 floats participated in the parade that commenced at 4.40 pm and ended at 7.40 pm with King Momo’s float taking 40 minutes to travel the 1.2 kms route of the parade. While there were only 2 floats in the sponsored category, there were 29 clowns or jokers, 10 in traditional category, 13 in club and institution, 15 in family and 19 in junk or fun car category.
While 25 Harley Davidson’s went ahead of the King Momo float including two lady riders, 40 Royal Enfields followed King Momo with three ridden by ladies. Dr Babita along with councilors Doris Texeira and Jose Fernandes sang a Konkani ditty as the crowd was waiting for the float parade to arrive at the main stage. Bruno Azaredo as King Momo read out his decree inviting visitors from India and abroad to enjoy a clean carnival. The Reserve Bank of India had a float for the first time while government departments like the Police and Goa State Urban Development Agency participated in the float parade.
Three persons had converted the traditional cycle into a motorized vehicle by fitting engines of different vehicles including the old Sunny scooter. One person had used the Kinetic chassis to prepare a motorized tricycle. There were three floats showing the national bird peacock and each was quite impressive in its own way. While three floats including the King Momo float had a mermaid, there was one that had a half male half fish which was called by the Compere Savio Mascarenhas as Merman.
Some of the interesting floats were the one on Goenchim Festam by Raul Pereira from Quepem, on fisher folks from Arossim Cansaulim where different types of fish including the ray fish were on display, sobit fullam from Arlem Raia and Juvenche painter from St Estevam. One float had a big banner stating “no money can bring back lost health”, and in another float a person was wearing a white T-shirt with “fot, fotting, fottingponn” written on it and the person showed his back to the dignitaries seated on the dais where Vijai was also seated.
One float parodied the fire services quite badly as a junk vehicle that had to be pushed to start was part of it and the dancers were just freaking out without any synchronized steps. The GSUDA float promoting Swachh Bharat had two green bins to collect dry and wet waste whereas in reality different coloured bins are used for the two types of waste. The float parade was held under the theme green and clean Goa and preserving Goan culture. Probably that was the reason many floats had people dressed as kunbis doing the kunbi dance or the cotti dance or the fugdi. In face a kunbi troupe was dancing ahead of the King Momo float.
Following the Parade, was the Carnival Street Dance at the newly developed iconic sit outcome massive sidewalks along the Ravindra Bhavan Auditorium which was recently thrown open to the public by the MLA Vijai Sardesai, with a complete revamp and renamed as “Opinion Poll Square”. Going with the whole ideology of Goenkarponn and creating a sit out of a kind. The Sunday night witnessed a huge crowd who simply made the best use of it-dancing, Eating and Drinking! With Goa’s sensation Lorna on stage, with other bands namely Purple rain Tidal Wave and True Blue, the crowd grooved to the beats and enjoyed every bit of these live performers. Lorna set the stage on fire with her popular hits, couple of them being “Bebdo” and “Pisso”.
As the night got younger, the stage of bands and musical instruments suddenly upped the tempo and allowed the crowd to let their hair down and dance into the carnival celebrations as noted Goan bands Purple Rain and Tidal Wave took the stage. Truly it was a memorable event with a great set up, that enthralled the audience, with more to come in the last two more days. On Monday night, Goan bands Sky High and Aces will perform, along with Fancy Dress Competition, Konkani programmes by P Angel and Group, Mando performance and Zumba dance. On the last day to get sober, 13th Tuesday night will feature Goan bands- Lynx and Raagas2Riches, along with Konkani programmes by C D’silva and Troupe, and traditional folk dance.
While concluding, I wish the organizing committee come up with better arrangements in controlling the crowd- this time there were no barricades, and people were walking like “stray people” right in the path of the parade, thereby blocking the view of the crowd gathered on the side walks. Get more police next time and make better arrangements so that everyone enjoys the festival. Until then Viva Carnaval-Viva Goa! The fun Never Stops in “Amche Goa”
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