TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: The countdown for Goa Carnival 2013 has begun with the Tourism Department creating the ambience, by decorating streets in Panjim and major towns, along carnival parade routes. As many as 100 floats are expected to participate in the festival this year.
Addressing a press conference today Tourism Minister Dilip Parulekar said, “Today’s final meeting has taken stock of all arrangements for the four- day carnival event starting February 9 and the five-day food and cultural festival from February 8.”
A large number of entries have already come for the float parade and 98 per cent of the stalls have already been booked for the food and cultural festival. Also Panjim has got a budget hike from Rs 15 lakh to Rs 20 lakh. Budget allocations for the other carnival committees remain the same.
The prize money for the float parade contests have also not been hiked and the budget for the entire festivities is limited to Rs 3 crore.
Parulekar said that Kashmir, Arunachal Pradesh, Gujarat are participating in the food and cultural festival from February 8 to 12 and are expecting another three to four more states to join in.
There is uncertainty over the Union minister of state (independent charge) for tourism Cheeranjevi’s presence for the carnival as his schedule has been subjected to last minute changes.
“If possible he will be here,” said Parulekar
Meanwhile, the Panjim Carnival committee addressed the media giving details of the festivities.
Announcing the four days festivities, Sanjit Rodrigues, CCP commissioner told the media, “The square will be turned into a people’s square for carnival and samba which is associated with carnival would be the theme for this carnival.”
The committee had decided to have a kids carnival zone, food stalls, and latino music to add to the ambience while the entire church square would be free of traffic. “Road will be closed around Garcia de Horta – except for one lane of traffic… There will be lots of competition,” Rodrigues said adding that the décor too would have a Latin theme.
The committee has also decided to have a No Mo Zo on Sunday with an early start.
The carnival theme song by Mukesh Gatwal and with lyrics by the “evergreen” John Aquiar was released.
Till date there have been some 40-45 entries. Both the tourism minister and the president of the committee promised to be strict on selection of floats, especially commercial floats.
