Celebrating the joy of giving

Over the last few years The Socorro Socio-Art and Culture Association has been initiating some unique festivals which seek to popularise Goa's rich traditional culture and provide a bigger platform to showcase it to the world. From Patoichem Fest to Poderachem Fest, the festivals continue to grow and receive good attendance from locals and visitors alike. 

And on November 19, the association is all set to introduce yet another new festival Denneachem Fest 2017 or The Festival of Giving 2017 on November 19, 10 am onwards at Titos Restaurant, Baga. Denem in Konkani translates to offering and the festival seeks to offer a host of art, music and food offerings for Goans to all share in.
At the forefront of the organising is Marius Fernandes, cultural activist who together with Fr Santan Carvalho, parish priest of Socorro and supporter of grassroots festivals, will share their skills and services towards the fest.
The event will begin at 10 am sharp with a welcome song sung by the students of St Joseph's High School, Calangute. Following this official opening, there will be an amalgamation of live demonstrations of local and traditional art, craft, music, dance and song by a sea of Goan talent, that have volunteered their time and energy towards the festival. These include Goa's noted cartoonist Alexyz and artist Clarice Vaz who will be showcasing her syringe artworks and also demonstrating how she goes about creating her fluid and spin paintings. Other artists expected to perform include artist Savio Godinho ,dancer Clizsma, Jocino and his troupe and Darryl D'Souza and his dance troupe. Carlos Fernandes will give a special percussion performance that will prominently feature the ghumat/ghumott while O'luv will perform some his noteworthy Konkani pop songs.
Naaz - picnic style group singing, a fond memory of the yesteryear Goan - will be recreated at the festival, in which anyone is free to join.
A highlight of the festival will be Balcaoache Gozalli. This segment seeks to transform the oftentimes distancing tone of a formal interview into a warm, down-to-earth dialogue as once took place in the open-to-all balcaos of Goan homes.
At the festival, some prominent Goans, over the course of dialogue will share their life stories and the skills that made them specialists in their specific fields. The menu for the festival will be the usual wholesome Goenchem jevonn, which includes xit-kodi, a local bhaji, lonche, etc. There will be a number of stalls, including one selling ghumats/ghumotts that have been specially resized and re-priced for children and women. Another noteworthy stall is that of Premanand S, differently-abled bamboo artist who will have on display 20 plus musical instruments that he has hand crafted out of bamboo.
As these village festivals are, this fest too, will not have any sponsors, alcohol, chief guest or prizes. The entire event will be completely crowdfunded. "This one day for Goa, apart from helping people bond, will also help them to network," says Marius Fernandes.

# The event will be held from 10 am to 3 pm at Club Titos, Baga
# It will kick off with a welcome song sung by students of St Joseph's High School, Calangute
#n Noted personalities like Alexyz, Clarice Vaz, Carlos Gonsalves and O'luv will be a part of the fest
# Naaz - picnic style group singing, a fond memory of the yesteryear Goan - will be recreated at the festival
# Balcaoache Gozalli will see four prominent Goan sharing their life stories with the audience
# There will be Goenchem jevonn, which includes xit-kodi, a local bhaji, lonche, etc
# Premanand S, differently-abled bamboo artist will display 20 plus musical instruments of bamboo.
# There will also be a stall selling ghumats
# The whole event is crowdfunded