With an objective to make Panjim one of India’s most lively cities to live in, Panjim First in association with the Corporation of the City of Panjim (CCP) presents the ‘Bandstand” project at Jardim Garcia de Orta (Panjim Municipal Garden).
The platform brings to life the old ‘Bandstand’ to promote young amateur musicians, as well as accomplished musicians from around the State, to perform various genres of music including Goan, classical, contemporary and fusion art forms.
“The intent of organizing such events is to encourage local citizens to make use of the garden/open spaces around the city, and to further create a sense of fellowship while preserving in pristine vigour these areas for our future generations,” CCP Commissioner Sanjit Rodrigues told Herald.
The organizers, Panjim First hopes that such activities bring to fruition initiatives to make Panjim truly a world class destination with the kind support and co-operation of citizens to enrich Goan culture in its true spirit, as well as actively promoting various social programs planned for the near future.
The aim, one of the organizers says, is to encourage amateur as well as accomplished musicians to perform various genres including Goan, folk, classical and fusion art forms.
“The concept aims at drawing people out of their homes by providing them with the opportunity of spend some fun time listening to music in a garden. This well spent evening over music and food will further help create a sense of fellowship while simultaneously providing organizers with the opportunity of furthering their cause of conserving and advocating sustainable measures to keep public areas clean,” organizers say.
While at present they invite people and bands to come and perform, the Panjim First trust hopes to promote all kinds of artistic activity and all kinds of music.
Locals say it is a good initiative by the CCP and the Panjim First but at the same time there are detractors too.
One Stephen Dias from Panjim says, “It was shocking to see that our Panjim Garden from the Portuguese time, also known as Garcia de Orta is converted into a bar and restaurant. It is a pity that CCP headed by Sanjit Rodrigues, acts as a blind person and he is least bothered about what will happen to this garden, provided money comes in.”
“This is all for income purposes, or sometimes it is called donations for the temples and churches. What is more interesting is that our regular clubs like Nacional, Vasco de Gama, Club Gaspar Dias etc have become dormant because the government imposes all kinds of taxes etc and the spirit of entertainment which we had in our olden days is disappearing day by day,” he added.
Another senior citizen, Augustinho Pereira says, “Garcia de Orta was used for entertainment, relaxing for children and senior citizens. What we see now is just eating, drinking and playing with plants and using the garden to keep plastic chairs and tables in the lawn to drink and eat. The waste is seen everywhere as a result.”
Commissioner Rodrigues, refuting the claims says, “The CCP does not charge the organizers anything for the use of the garden as we want the people of Panjim to come together and spend some quality time together.”
“At the Bandstand, new artists get a chance to come and perform. Besides the new ones, even the regular bands play without charging any money,” he added.
