We have just witnessed a weekend of chaotic Carnival festivities, but what good fun!!

On Saturday our local village Benaulim held it’s colourful carnival with about 15 floats passing by, completely decked out with their own 5000 megawatt noise systems! The main carnival started from Paniji the capital, then they amalgamated and over the next 3 days, toured other cities.

As the floats and their dancers passed by, it was hard to distinguish between the float hangers-on and general public, who were still trying to pass the procession in the narrow streets.

Earlier in the afternoon, a dozen traffic police (the blue markers show a traffic officer) were stood at a road junction where the parade was passing and initially we thought they would stop all traffic as it approached….but no! This is typical Indian madness. The traffic police blew whistles and held up their hands to stop scooters passing by…..and the riders totally ignored the police and carried on, whizzing round the officers and revving engines until the smell of two-stroke almost made us cough!!

As the first float went past, the road was filled with colourful youngsters on 100s of scooters, all smiling and waiting patiently to move on. The next float followed, as did another batch of youngsters and so it continued….until all floats ended up at the beach where they were judged before heading home.

On Sunday afternoon, we got a taxi into Margao, our nearest city, to watch an even bigger, noisier and more colourful parade! Most of the floats from Benaulim were in this parade but the rest were bigger, more spectacular, louder and more colourful….the noise from the speakers is indescribable, as each one passed, the next blended in, it was fantastic!!!

The floats were representative of local families or clubs and organisations, families that make wood products (furniture etc.), youth groups that look after the marine life, organisations that support collecting plastics from the beaches and the sea etc. Some were religious groups (church trailer and wedding dancers) and others were clubs like a modified car group, Lambretta scooter group or a dance school.

Another aspect that we found amazing was the involvement and support by youngsters, they were not afraid of dressing up, getting involved and participating in dances, unlike kids in the UK!

A great, but long, afternoon and evening was had, followed by a wonderful traditional Italian pizza meal, suggested by a lovely Goan man we have met several times in local bars!!