PANJIM: A small group of people decided to quite literally bang the proverbial drum, with regard to reviving some lost Carnival traditions. This one was namely the alvorada, one of the age old traditions surrounding Carnival that had died out. The conventional alvorada involved brass bands playing in sync (or not) at the crack of dawn (which is exactly what alvorada means in Portuguese), to herald the good time that was about to unfold, come Carnival. And this year saw just that; some of Goa’s drummers turning up in Panjim’s church square at 5:30 AM, on February 25, 2017, to play their beat for the Carnival celebrations.
One of the people leading the group, Vasco Alvares, explains where the idea originated. “In more recent times, there used to be this van, belonging to ‘St Xavier’s Sound’, going around with music, early in the morning. This year, a small group of us decided to take it a little further, playing drums as a part of the process. This year, it was a stationary alvorada, and we played near Café Bhonsle as well. The idea came up as an initiative of drummer, Clifford Siqueira, who thought that the time was right to do something more traditional” he said.
Speaking on the how the concept came about, Siqueira said, “A couple of very good musician friends of mine from Canada were visiting Goa. They are well-versed with playing samba. While we were chatting, we toyed with the idea of doing something different at Carnival this year. That’s where the idea of the alvorada with a drum twist arose. Our initial plan was to do it in the evening, but we then changed that to a morning plan, in keeping with tradition, which could help people get into the mood from the early morning. That’s when I reached out to Vasquito, as his father, Roberto was a pioneer, when it came to such ventures.”
This year, the first edition of the alvorada saw 8-10 drummers turn up to support the movement, but Vasco believes that 2018 holds more promise.
