The New Year extravaganza in Goa before 2007 saw hordes descend on Goa; places like Sinquerim, Calangute, Baga, Anjuna and beyond were packed to the rafters. Sunburn arrived on Goan shores and brought a new kind of year end tourist “ the EDM fan. A few years later, Supersonic was started. The week before New Year saw Goa become a madhouse.
Yes, there are crowds. The hotels are full. The restaurants are full. The roads are full. Money flows into the cash drawers. But is everything really okay? Behind the scenes, many say NO! And an emphatic one at that. For 10 years now electronic dance music festivals have added a new feather to Goa’s cap. Many in the tourism department rejoice. But it’s not just residents of these villagers that have a problem. Many restauranteurs do too. There are some that love the money but hate the congestion issues. As do the residents and elected officials.
Now, as the government starts to rethink two festivals during peak season, there is a bit of unrest in the organisers’ camps. The Goa Police has now stated that they will request that only one event be held instead of two. IGP Sunil Garg says that both these events being held simultaneously puts pressure on security machinery. He would be correct. Tourism Minister Dilip Parulekar has also said that only one of the festivals would be allowed in December when tourism was at its peak.
This now puts pressure on both festival organisers. Who will blink first?
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Nowhere in the world except Goa are two major EDM events playing during the same period. It doesn't make sense at all. Personally, I feel both of them should be rescheduled to January - March period to avoid the horrific traffic situation at the year end. I'm sure the response will not differ and it will improve Goan tourism numbers and local harmony. Goan numbers rival all other Indian events. They need Goa not the other way round!
Aaron Soares, orthopaedic surgeon
I have always said they need to organise the festivals during the low tourist season, but not during the monsoon. Goa is anyway jam-packed during December. An even better option is to have it in the south, which is more spread out and has bigger beaches and more land to host it. With better road access it'll reduce the burden on the already messed up north belt.
Bismarck Messias, tourism industry
It would be nice to have one event at a time instead of two events simultaneously as it would help in getting in tourists staying over a longer period of time instead of the usual three to four days. Both the events have helped put Goa on the international music festival map and get in a good amount of revenue to our state and our local community which depends on tourism. The major issues that one faces is major traffic jams, accidents due to drinking and driving, drugs, reckless driving and noise pollution due to various after the parties but all this can be handled with better traffic management, police with alcohol meters, civil police keeping a check on drugs and more of educating the tourist of the do's and don'ts while they enter the state.
Shawn Martins, Calangute Zilla panchayat member
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The #TGLife View
Sunburn and Supersonic do bring thousands of tourists to Goa, in their own right. They also say that they have a brand that draws tourists to their events, so Goa cannot afford to ignore tehm. But no brand can be or should be bigger than Goa, when it comes to tourism. If the festivals are such big draws, then they should be able to attract people for their events in Goa no matter when or where they are held.
Both the events are good for Goa. They do bring in a large number of tourists and the state cannot afford to ignore that. But, Goa has to decide when the best time to host these events should be. An ideal time would be when there’s a lull in tourism, either just before the peak season, or just after. Around the world, large scale events depend on local authorities to dictate terms. Goa cannot allow anyone else to tell them what should be done. Granted, both festivals prefer the year end time period because it’s a time to revel and party for their demographic. It’s also quite an expensive time to travel to and stay in Goa. Staging either or both festivals outside of the peak season would mean that even airfare and room tariffs are lower than the end of December. It would be a more viable option to come for either festival then.
This is Goa’s decision to make. Hopefully, the grandstanding by elected officials right now will continue. If they submit to either or both organisers, they will not be doing Goa justice.
