THE GOAN | MAPUSA
At precisely 10 pm, the law says the music must stop. On paper, the Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB) has made that position unambiguous – reiterated forcefully at a recent press conference where officials insisted that all music, without exception, must shut down by 10 pm. Weddings, restaurants, beach shacks, nightclubs – no one, the Board said, is above the noise pollution rules.
But along Goa’s coastal belt, particularly from Anjuna and Vagator to Morjim and further north, the clock appears to follow a different time zone altogether.
Ecstasy for revelers
As the long Republic Day weekend approaches – from January 24 to 26 – restaurants masquerading as nightclubs have already gone into overdrive.
For over a week now, social media has been buzzing with glossy posters, DJ line-ups, countdown reels and booking links promising something the law expressly forbids: music that begins at sunset and stretches well into sunrise.
“Endless moments,” “non-stop vibes,” “back to the source,” “revelry till dawn” – the vocabulary is consistent, unapologetic and public.
Masaya, describing itself as a nightclub, is promoting a three-day music festival from January 23 to 25, headlined by electronic music heavyweights Beswerda and Nikhil Chinapa.
The promotional material leaves little room for interpretation: “sunset till sunrise.”
A few hundred metres away from the Anjuna police station, Hilltop is advertising ‘Back To The Source 2026’, a three-day event boasting an “immaculate lineup” of artists.
Guru Bar in Anjuna says its Republic Day party begins at 8 pm on January 25 and ends only on January 26. Fiturr, Pirat Café and House of Chapora have all announced overnight events, some spanning multiple days.
And the list of nightclubs capitalising on the Republic Day weekend keeps getting longer. The tickets – priced steeply – are being sold openly online.
By now, locals say, the damage is done.
“Once tickets are sold, the music will play. There is no going back. The system bends to business,” said a resident of Anjuna.
For the party crowd, the weekend promises freedom, abandon and curated chaos.
Agony for residents
For residents, it signals three nights of relentless noise, gridlocked roads and the familiar sense of being abandoned by the very institutions meant to protect them.
“This is not celebration, this is invasion. By evening you cannot step out. By night you cannot sleep,” said a senior citizen from Vagator.
The problem, residents say, goes beyond noise. Narrow village roads are expected to be choked with traffic as thousands of vehicles stream into the coastal belt. Emergency access becomes nearly impossible. Tempers fray. Accidents become routine.
“There is music, traffic, drugs, shouting, fighting – everything. Some clubs advertise openly. Others don’t. They run underground parties known only to select circles involved in flesh trade and narcotics,” said Harish Govekar, a local from Ozran, Vagator.
Adding to the cynicism is the issue of enforcement – or the lack of it.
Sources confirmed that most clubs in the Anjuna-Vagator belt earlier sealed by the Joint Enforcement and Monitoring Committee (JEMC) have quietly resumed operations. Only Goya, Echo and Clara remain officially sealed, though residents say even that offers little reassurance.
“The front door may be sealed, but the business continues through side entrances. Who will dare raid them on a long weekend? The premises are sealed, the file is closed and enforcement forgets,” said Pradeep Harmalkar, a resident of Anjuna.
Official reacts
When contacted by The Goan, GSPCB Chairman Levinson Martins maintained that the law is clear and that no establishment is permitted to play music after 10 pm.
“They cannot play music. Forward the campaign material to me. I will forward it to the police,” Martins said.
The promotional material was forwarded to the chairman.
Acting on the material, the chairman late on Friday evening promptly directed his staff to initiate necessary action to prevent violations and to strictly enforce the ban on music in open premises after 10 pm.
The question remains: will the music stop at 10 pm, or will commercial interests once again override the law?
For residents who have watched this script play out year after year, hope is in short supply.
As Goa prepares to mark Republic Day – symbolic of law, order and constitutional values – its coastal villages are once again bracing for a weekend where regulation ends at 10 pm, but the music plays on till morning.
