In 2020, when the world was going through a state of confusion and shock of the pandemic, there was no way that Bonderam could be held with pomp and gaiety. Yet, to add cheer and celebrate the festival of harvest, Piedade Youth Association, went live on Facebook with a two and a half hour virtual celebration programme of the festival. The show was hosted by Avito de Pires and was entertaining from start to finish. The team behind the virtual celebrations comprised Sanjay Naik, Savio Monteiro, Anish Do Rego, Kevin Do Rego, Lino D’Mello, Freddy Ferrao, Beato D’emelo, Avelin Fernandes, Brijesh Kakodkar and Clarence Fernandes.
Though there was no live music, the songs were performed by the youth of the village including the Anthem song for the Piedade Bonderam celebrations. Beato D’Mello, was the president of the association from 2015-2018 and motivated the youth to create a virtual programme for not just Divadlars but Goans around the world. The programme begins with messages from past presidents including Mario Pinto, Jospeh Pinto, Fr Cipriano D’Silva, Prakash Pereira, Arthur Do Rego, Bernard Faria, Vallabh Kessarkar, Anthony Corte, Philip Grao, Victor Fernandes, Anil Pereira, Prasad Harmalkar, Freddy Ferrao, Sanjay D’Souza, Francis Serrao, Simon Gomes, Beato D’Mello and Kevin Do Rego.
“The virtual celebrations were widely watched by Goans around the world. On the day itself, we had around 2000 people watching it live and they were immediately responding with their messages,” says Beato D’Mello. the celebrations include segments from the documentary, ‘Xim’ directed by John Lino De Melo and Brijesh Kakodker and continued with the visuals of the floats of the previous year and the live bands that have performed in the past concluding with the band that performed at Bonderam 2019, Black in White. Till date, the virtual celebration of Bonderam has received over 6000 views.
