The Goa (which was a Portuguese colony) Carnival festival is held every year in the month of February and lasts for three days. It is one of the eagerly awaited events of the year. Goa’s famous carnival processions and float parades are symbolic of its Portuguese legacy. The carnival is held annually just before Lent, which is a 40-day fasting period preceding Easter. Goa Carnival was introduced by Portuguese, who ruled over the state for more than 500 years.
Before the Goa carnival 2010 started
Every year carnnival starts by 4PM, we reached by 3.30PM and was looking for a nice spot to have a better view and to take some pictures.
People waiting for the carnival to start
Empty streets, sales is yet to kick up for the day. They all come from Mumbai to sell there face masks and toys. They plan to produce these face masks - 3 months in advance.(I did ask with them!)
A loner waiting for the floats to start
Slowly the crowds pull in,....
King Momo of Goa leads Goa Carnival 2010
The festival is led by King Momo, a locally chosen dignitary who is given a key to the city. This time round Mark Dias, a bartender by profession, was been chosen to do the honours as King Momo.
The Goan fishermen had a float and they performed a traditional dance, 'Kalyan sangali,...sonachi,... song was very nice
Smart kids had a ball on the road and great dancers and all enjoyed it,...
The guy had a tough time walking with the coustume,.....
By the time the floats was nearing its end,... the dancers had to slow down. But still they did a good job entertaining
One hell of a king kong,..... this was one of the nice floats we saw,... and tough one to made
The pirates had a lot of actions and they did pose for pictures and this guy had a laugh for me,....
Party Time @ Goa Carnival
The Carnival of Goa is the time to indulge in feasting, drinking and merry making.
The carnival is also getting the Goa festive mood to higher limits. The media says and other sources say, Goa is not just an epicentre, where drugs are sold at rave and trance parties. In recent years, it has become a transit point for drugs shipped out to various European countries and a production centre for synthetic party drugs.
My opinion : The govt can do more to stop drinking on the streets during carnival, in a way the forgein tourists are making themselves prone to danger - which can be avoided
Again, the Govt is not going to do anything great as they recieve around 2 million tourist annually and that genarates revenue to the state,....