Bonderam 2019 calls Goans to save Goa

A flag parade, six colourful floats, vibrant décor, Konkani music, Goan food and a grand DJ night – Bonderam 2019 ended on a fun note at Divar Island! The festival of flags gathered huge crowds who crossed ferries to get on the beautiful island on Saturday afternoon. Everyone tried to blend in and join the festivities by sporting vividly coloured outfits and singing along to Konkani numbers.Goan food like assado, choris, cutlet and innovative street food like chicken rolls and pan pizzas and freeflowing spirits kept the energy levels high among the crowds.
The flag parade was followed by a fancy dress competition. Soon, the crowd witnessed the much-awaited float parade that included floats portraying village life, traditional occupations, local folk forms and social messages. As the sun went down, the musical duo of Marlon and Nicia enthralled the crowd with foot-tapping Konkani music. DJ Shania and Dwayne soon took to the console to get the crowd to gather in front of the stage and dance to their hearts content. The band Black In White took over and continued to maintain the tempo with their groovy music.
CULTURAL FESTIVAL BRINGS PEOPLE TOGETHER
At Bonderam, the six colourful floats are by far the highlight of the day that draws huge crowds! Ahead of the big event, the villagers from several wards spend days creating the perfect floats, practicing their music and dance. People, regardless of their age and religion take part in various capacities – helping build the float, manage the proceedings, take part in singing and dances, creating costumes, handling logistics and so on. With no brands or sponsors involved, this brings out the true team spirit and joint effort among the villagers Judith Sequeira took part with her group Maddan Stars in the float with the theme of importance of salt. “We depict how our ancestors were into salt farming and we would get organic salt. We are trying to depict the occupation and hoping to preserve and revive it by getting our youngsters interested,” she says, before adding, “We are around 50-60 people from our ward. People of all ages and religions have taken part in this parade. I started taking part as a child and still continue to do so.”
Through their elaborate float, the group Vittozem focused on the girl child. They depicting the life of a woman right from being a toddler, growing up and pursuing a career of her choice. “We want to show the world how talented and capable our girls are. They can chase any dream and achieve whatever they want. We have around 50 participants. Our youngest participant is seven months old. We have been performing for a week in the evenings,” says Caitan Furtado.
80-85 people of all ages from Romantic group curated an interesting float focusing on the theme of Saving Goa’s Wealth. “We are focusing on issues like cutting of hills and felling of trees in the name of development, illegal mining that again affects nature and so on. Goans migrate to London and there’s no one here to take care of Goa. So we want to spread a message and request people to save our environment, because that’s what we leave our younger generation. We hope we can revive traditional occupations as well,” Freddy Ferrao who designed the float.
Another float shifted the focus to plastic pollution and its effect on the waters of Goa. “A lot of plastic gets dumped in the sea, in turn polluting the water. In the olden times, there was bountiful tasty fish. But now, with pollution it’s all deteriorating. Our ancestors loved us and left a legacy of a clean and green Goa. So now it’s our turn to protect what we’ve got and save it for the future generations. We are destroying everything for the sake of money and pride. Around 85 people all all ages and religions are a part of our float,” says Romeo Pereira.