Panaji: Around 50,000 people basked in
the festivities for the first day of the Carnival festival
here today.
Floats, dancers and artistes dressed in fancy clothes
marched past Dayanand Bandodkar road alongside the picturesque
Mandovi River this evening. The parade was flagged off by the
state Chief Minister Digamber Kamat in the presence of Tourism
Minister Fransisco Pacheco.
The Goa Tourism Development Corporation, in
association with local civic body ? City Corporation of Panaji
(CCP) had put up this annual parade, in which around 50
groups participated.
Rest of the main cities of Goa will host the parade
for the next three days, when mythological imaginary figure
King Momo will rule over the state. The main float had King
Momo on it which followed other creative floats. The State
Tourism Department, which conceived this event as a major
tourist attraction, sponsors the main float, which will go
around the state for the next three days.
Mark Dias, a bar tenderer of a cruise ship, has been
selected to don as a King Momo, who will lead all the float
parades in the state this year.State Tourism Minister Pacheco
said that the event has been a big tourist drawer and being
unique to Goa. The event has been marketed worldwide.
A strong policemen security was in place along the
road as the three-hour-long parade went on peacefully.
PTI
