LONDON
At a time when Goa Day festivals and events are being organised around the world since the turn of this century, not many may be aware that nearly 3,000 Goans had come together to celebrate Goan identity and culture at the first Goan festival of its kind in the UK nearly four decades ago.
The first-ever biennial Goan Exhibition and Festival was held on the grounds and the Clubhouse of the Goan Association on Sunday, July 14, 1985, with the aim to foster a closer relationship within the Goan community and with other communities.
The affiliated organisations were the GOA (UK), Southampton Goans and those organisations with roots in Benaulim, Betalbatim, Calangute, Colva, Cortalim, Majorda, Margao, Moira, Parra, Saligao, Siolim and Tivim, revealed details from the Goa Newsletter published in August-September 1985.
In his editorial in that Goa Newsletter, the late Melvyn Fernandes provided fascinating details of the Goan Exhibition and Festival.
“The Goan Exhibition and Festival 1985 will have amply justified the setting up of the Standing Conference of Goan Organisations (SCOGO) in this country and served its objective of finding common bonds to bring the Goan community closer together,” stated Fernandes.
“It is also significant that this is being achieved regardless of whether an individual is a member of any particular association or union. Noticeably, there was also at the Exhibition and Festival a significant number of non-Goans indicative of the bridges we are helping to build, through such events, with other communities.”
“By any standards that one might wish to apply, this first Goan Exhibition and Festival which drew over 2,800 people was a huge success and attendances in the years to come can only be expected to rise,” Fernandes wrote in his editorial.
Raymond Carvalho, a senior Goan residing in London, had vivid memories of the event.
“The Goan Exhibition and Festival 1985 was part of the SCOGO. All Goans knew each other at the time and they celebrated different village feasts. Everyone was friendly and there was no animosity. The atmosphere was very homely as compared to the festivals they have now. The venue was ideal and in an isolated area, away from traffic noise,” recalled Carvalho.
“It is a shame that the Clubhouse got burnt, but apart from that tragedy everything was perfect and everyone looked forward to the festival. It was a free entry and the only thing that you did was buy your own food, which was reasonably priced, in the clubhouse. The festival had a lot of people, lots of stalls and different games like tug-of-war, etc.”
“The organisation of the festival and the committee was very good. There was no bickering and everyone was united,” added Carvalho.
It was an era without the internet and social media, but organisers of the Goan Festival and Exhibition had made remarkable efforts to get thousands of Goans and people from surrounding areas, to attend the event through limited communication facilities at the time.
Fernandes had made some mention of this in his editorial, stating that the organisers “had also gone to a lot of trouble to woo the neighbours we have at Ravensbourne.”
“They had each received, through their letter box, an invitation to the event and had been asked to help make this the 'better neighbours' effort that it was intended to be. Many attended and others wrote expressing appreciation of the invitation,” wrote Fernandes.
Such was the success at the first such Goan festival that Fernandes ended his editorial by stating, “We shall look forward to the Goan Exhibition & Festival '87 and meanwhile congratulate those who successfully took the first momentous step and organised the Goan Exhibition & Festival '85.”
The venue of the festival, the Clubhouse and cricket ground of the Goan Association (GOA UK), was to have a sad end. The Clubhouse was destroyed in a fire sometime in September 1998 and the property was later sold off by the GOA UK.
A photo of a pair of Kunbi dancers at the Goan Exhibition and Festival 1985 was published on the cover of the Goan Newsletter UK of Aug-Sep 1985.
