Last year Funkit had to do the unthinkable.
His signature lead float with the Mask did not carry KingMomo. The weight of death of four children in Calvim bus tragedy had sunk theState’s spirits.
Worse, a big brotherly Election Commission looked sharper atthe celebrations as for the first time in years the carnival celebration wascancelled.
Funkits’ unique float never came into public view. Months ofcreative efforts went wasted.
All that has changed this year.
For the first time, Viva Carnival cuts outs and banners,colourful masks have sprung up like never before all over the State. Carnivallooks bigger and snazzier. But Funkit aka Francisco Martins is still unhappy.“How the government just come 15 days before carnival and make a huge hue andcry for a massive carnival. I say, promote it well, organize it well, planearly and evaluate after each carnival the positives and negatives”. But thecarnival this year looks more organized as State has pulled all the plugs toensure that this is one big celebration.
“We are spending five crores rupees so that we can earn 250crore rupees though various taxes,” says an upbeat Nikhil Desai, Director, GoaTourism. Desai’ steam has bent over its back to raise the bar for investmentsin the traditional festivities. Goa Tourism is spending over Rs 3 crores oncelebrations and events in and around Panjim, Rs 15 lakhs each on carnivalcelebrations in Margao, Vasco and Mapusa, Rs 8 lakhs on Ponda and Rs 5 lakhs onShiroda. Besides, there will be prize money worth Rs 3.75 lakhs for eachcenter. For the first time, the statewide celebrations are being choreographedby Vasco-based Vinsan Graphics.
And as always this time too the carnival comes with a fairdegree of controversy. The Vasco based outfits presence in Goa Tourism’s schemeof things has raised quite a few eyebrows as Vinsan has also dabbled in WorldTourism Mart as well as Advertising for Goa Tourism. “They have all theexperience prescribed in the tender form and they have hosted carnival 2009”defends Desai.
What he however fails to convince is why Goa government hasnow changed the process for giving advances and why three of the six bidders,who had applied did not file properly and why Goa Tourism failed to attract bigticket entertainers like Wizkraft, Fountainhead and Percept.
But then King Momo’s satire does not excite everybody. Oneof the proponents of traditional spirit of Goa in carnival, Aloo Gomes Pereirais appalled by the razzmatazz of Bollywood and Haute Couture clouding thesimplicity and joy of traditional carnival.
“We look to emulate Rio for carnival, Singapore forcleanliness and Cannes for a film fest. Why can’t we just be Goa that had thegreat intruz, khell tiatr and carnival parties. Just excite people to do theirown thing and have themselves to party in their carnival outfits. We don’t needmonster floats and to go into an unaffordable league of Rs 7crores to celebratecarnival. It’s time to go back to our basics and invite the world here to envyour traditions at Carnival”, says the COO of Charters & Goa. His voice lostin the loud pageantry and staged fun and games but definitely a question at thefuture.
