Vasco bids adieu to carnival with parade

panaji: the four-day merry making fest came to an end this evening with a colourful float parade in the port town of vasco-da-gama and several clubs and institutions organizing ‘adieus carnival’ shows and dances till late night. vasco was gripped by carnival mood with thousands of people enthusiastically thronging to witness the carnival parade.the mormugao port trust (mpt), which contributes to goa’s economy also joined in the merry making floats parade by depicting a message of “my city, my port and my people.� the mpt float also depicted the activities at the port and measures to control pollution. in all 28 floats participated in vasco carnival parade, which began from st andrew’s church square and later passed through swatantrapath, joshi chowk and culminated near mormugao municipal square. the prizes for the winners were distributed at the hands of revenue minister, mr jose philip souza. the strong posse of policemen posted along the route could not control the crowd gathered along both sides and in the melee the barricades were broken with the crowd rushing inside. however, the organizers had a tough time to control the people, who burst into raptures of applause to the carnival dancers. meanwhile, goa’s percussion wizard bondo, who sent the jam packed margao carnival crowd into raptures with his trademark blend of samba and goan traditional music, accompanied by his fully goan tribal band presented his show this evening at the red black and gold carnival dance, here, presented by the navhind times. bondo performed live, accompanied by guitar player roy venkat, a former member of bob marley’s band the ‘wailers’ and tala faral, a saxophonist from the united states. bondo will be leaving for a tour of macau and china soon after the carnival.