PANAJI: 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 decongest 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.
King Momo threw the festival open aboard a mermaid themed tableau. This year, Bruno Azaredo from Utorda, South Goa was chosen to lead the Carnaval Parade as King Momo. But many floats which are annually seen were presented in this year's edition as well. These included gigantic representations of marine life, avians and mythical animals, besides the enactment of traditional Goan festivals and practices.
"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, an actor.
One new addition for this year's edition was a float by the Goa Police, encouraging citizens to follow traffic rules and dissuading them from driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol. "This is for the first time that
Goa Police has participated in the float parade. We are hopeful that people take this message seriously," said DySP Panaji, Nelson Albuquerque.
A few others had similar messages to give out, like the Mission Rabies one which urged citizens to get their dogs vaccinated. In another one, men wearing oxygen masks held placards reading 'save trees before the planet runs out of oxygen'.
"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
Christina Correia, a student.
Thousands of peopleturned 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.
"Next year, we will have better seating arrangement in this location and bring in creative floats. We will rope in hotels to adopt and sponsor enthusiastic participants in creating floats that are of much better standards," said Goa Tourism Development Corporation (GTDC) chairman, Nilesh Cabral.
Representative image
