Viva Goa! Viva Carnival 2020-the Unbelievable Four Happy & Fun Days before Lent
Mangaluru: After a long night of partying at Konkan Fiesta featuring Goa’s Nightingale Lorna, with bunch of DJ’s and a live band on Saturday, 22 February at City Beech, Mangaluru, Me and my friends, Loy D’souza and Ajith were up by 5 am on Sunday, 23 February morning, and set our journey by car to Goa to witness the Goa Carnival 2020- and after nearly a 5-hour journey reached Margao, well in time to witness the second day of carnival, comprising of parade, floats, lots of music and food. The Carnival showed colourfully-decorated float parade – and Yes, we were at the Carnival again! The time to sway to the beats of the samba and enjoy days of fun and fiesta! The festival evoked feelings of nostalgia among locals as an event that brought people to the streets, with the spirit of merriment in the air. With colours, music, and dancing, the float parade stole the show during this festive period.
Nearly 60 floats stole the show during the parade, and this year the Carnival theme was “Drug Free State”- and this year Shalom Sardinha, who was the King Momo, a mythological figure, who is symbolic when it comes to carnival celebrations and who declared the decree of ‘Eat, Drink and Make Merry’ during his 4-day reign, also said, “Say No to drugs, and when you drink (liquor), be responsible. Be safe and also let others be safe”- that was a perfect message to the revelers at the Carnival. The parade showcased diverse participants under various categories, displaying different themes and messages. Carnaval 2020 was a colorful panorama of dancers and floats depicting the quintessential Goenkar life, burning issues, and larger-than-life monsters, plus much more. Artistically designed floats depicting larger-than-life traditional Goan fruits, vegetables, fish, wild animals and the Mando in all its glory were a treat for the eyes of thousands of people who had lined the streets of the parade route. Other wide range of floats highlighted social issues concerning the society, environment and wild life, through implementation of strict rules and regulations.
Upholding the traditional legacy there were several locals who put up floats illustrating the traditional culture, heritage and occupations of Goa. The music accompanying the floats brought the festive crowd, particularly tourists on their feet. The parade also had themes from the national level, effectively advertised by the visual media. Some other floats also had their own way of attracting attention. After the float parade, it was all excitement and extravaganza of music and dance , where the revelers enjoyed every bit of it till late night. Fun and frolic virtually ruled the roost as King Momo, along with Queen Momo, leading the the float parade read out the edict to ring in the celebrations before the 40 days of Lenten season, which started on 26 February.
The carnival parade witnessed a mix of tradition and creativity in the tableau’s which were presented at the parade that consisted of floats in various categories. I feel that it’s a good platform to bring awareness through these floats and give out a social message, since most of the floats were quite educative which could give a message to the locals, tourists and also those in authority in various civic departments. The traditional floats depicting Goa’s well maintained traditions attracted the attention of the mammoth crowd. As the crowd on the road shoulders swelled , the police personnel had a tough time in controlling them. The cops forcibly brought down some revelers who had climbed to the top of the trees in the city to avoid any untoward incidents.
Team Mangalorean ran into a few “Mangalurgars” who were having a nice time partying with “Goenkars” at the Carnival – It’s no doubt that Mangaloreans like to party-and when there is nothing much of fun and frolic taking place here in the coastal city, Mangaloreans look for any other destination where they could enjoy to the best of life-and Goa is one such destination that party lovers of Mangaluru like to go and get into a revelry mood.
As Mangaloreans know, food and drink are huge draws in Goa – While seafood, feni and pungent Goan sausages are on almost every travel itinerary, there was much more on offer at the Food and Culture Festival, organized by Goa Tourism as a precursor to Goa Carnival 2020. The free entry meant that visitors poured in to participate in the festivities, and off course we were there, because free is always better, fun and merrier. From seafood grills to pork sorpothel from kebabs to biriyani, from iced drinks to sinful desserts, everything was on sale at the food festival. Aromas competed in the cool evening air and the dressed-up stalls offered a feast for the senses. While carnivores gorged for joy, a few mollified vegetarians could be seen secretly tucking into something fleshy on this night of sin.
And since the present BJP government has restricted the party time to end at 10 pm sharp, we decided to stay back in Margao, and enjoy the goodness and fun the City had to offer us. We enjoyed the three day night fun at the “The Big Fat Fatorda Carnival Blast 2020”, which featured Goa’s top bands like – ‘Pure Magic’, Archies’, Band Wagon’, ‘Forefront’, ‘Lynx’, ‘Uzo’, and many more, joined by Bollywood celebrities on stage- and the man behind to arrange the Party Nights in spite of restrictions posed by BJP Government was Fatorda MLA Vijay Sardesai, of the opposition party, who slammed the government for their dirty tricks in spoiling the festive mood of the revelers by imposing curfew time of 10 pm to end the party- he said that the Govt is like a Spoiled Game! Anyways thank you, Vijay Sardesai, for supporting the revelers. Viva Carnival! Viva Sardesai! And yes Viva Carnaval 2020! Viva Goa !- where fun never stops. Adios Goa, until we see you again for the Viva Carnival 2021!