Fewer but better quality floats at Ponda

 PONDA: The Indo-Pak cricket match on Sunday as well as the Carnival parade at Margao resulted in a poor turnout at the Ponda Carnival with fewer number of participating tableaus, said an organizer.

What the Ponda carnival parade lost in numbers, they made up in quality tableaus. Spectators had their eyes glued to the float parade. Fewer tableaus registered this year as compared to last year but the number of clowns and jokers rose this year.

The informative tableaus included a 'Save the frog and turtles', 'Save the girl child', 'Say no to ganja' and a portrayal of the traditional fenny distillery enthralled spectators. Sources said that organizers had to pay an incentive of 10,000 to each tableau group to ensure the parade ran smoothly. This has been confirmed by an organizer, who wished to remain anonymous.

The float parade started at Upper Bazaar and passed through Kaziwada, Mount Carmel Chapel, Ponda municipal council building, and winded up at Tisk-Ponda. The town witnessed 27 floats as against 36 of last year and 20 clowns/jokers as compared to 10 who participated in last year's carnival parade. There were six floats in the family category, seven in the traditional, six in the club and institution and eight in the fun junky car category.