Goa: It’s carnival time in Panaji today

More than 100 floats will participate at the opening day parade of the Carnival 2010 in the capital city on Saturday evening. "Ninety-five floats have already confirmed their participation. However, we are keeping spot entries open, and are expecting 20-25 floats on the day of the parade itself," Panaji mayor Carolina Po said.

Although the government had earlier specified that all floats would be screened a couple of days before the first parade in order to do with floats with repetitive themes, the Panaji mayor said that it was tough to implement. "The screening committee has already checked the floats. However, so many last minute entries are being received, that we find it hard to say no to them. After all they have put in so much effort and hardwork, and they are locals. We do not wish to deny Goans a chance to showcase their work at the Carnival parade," the mayor said, adding, "there will be a variety of floats this year."

The parade will commence at 3 pm and will be led by the King Momo float. Mark Anthony Dias from St Estevam will be King Momo this year. Dias has participated at the Rio and New Orleans carnival parades, states a press release by the Panjim Carnival Committee. The lead float will be folhad said that the floats will be screened by the organizing committee to avoid duplication of floats and also to avoid floats depicting vulgarity and/or participating for commercial purposes.

The Goa Carnival also moves boasts of a 10% hike in the prize money in every category, except the sponsored category, this year. The dates for the carnival parade have been scheduled from February 13 to February 16 at Panaji, Margao, Vasco and Mapusa respectively. The five categories are traditional, club/institution, fun junk, family, clown/joker and sponsored. lowed by the Queen Momo float. Stacia Azavedo from Mapusa will be the Queen Momo this year.