The villagers of Arambol will be celebrating the second edition of their unique festival, Ramponnkarachem Fest ani Voddekaranchem Fest’, this Sunday, September 30, 2018 at the Arambol beach. As the focus of the festival is on the livelihoods of fishermen, Goans will get a chance of be part of the fishing at sea experience, the trade and nets that are used besides revelling in Goan music, dance and food. If you are still working on your plans for this Sunday, Arambol beach is the place to be. The quiet village will be buzzing with activities as over 1500 villagers will be at the beach for the Ramponnkarachem Fest ani Voddekaranchem Fest’, this Sunday, September 30, 2018 at the Arambol beach. After a successful edition of the festival last year, Arambolkars are even more excited to showcase their traditional lifestyle. If you are on schedule, you can even help the fishermen pull the catch from the sea and then cook the fish and relish it with your lunch. This year, the festival will be celebrating Goenche Jevonn, Ghumotacho Naaz and Konkani Bhas. The festival will kick start at Our Lady of Mount Church, Arambol at 9.30 am with the Arambolachim pasoi. The local brass bands with village ghumot groups and will join in the procession which will wind up at the beach, the venue of the fest. All those who want to participate will have to join in the pasoi at the church. There is ample parking space in the church vicinity. Musicians can join in with their violins, guitars and ghumots as the 45 minutes procession will include Goan music personalities like Carlos Gonsalves, O’Luv and Felly Gomes. Fr Pio Almeida, the Parish Priest of Our Lady of Mount Church, Arambol is supportive of the festival and Marius Fernandes has guided the villagers on organising the festival. After reaching the Arambol beach, the youngsters of the village will organise a Prayer dance followed by a theme boat leaving with the rampon (fishing net) for an hour. It will be go around the backdrop of the stage casting the net. On the stage, there will be interviews of fishermen of the village, Luis Fernandes, Manuel D’Souza and Daniel Rodrigues by Peter Rodrigues as they will be talking about their lives, struggles and the fishing prospects in the future. There is a theme song especially composed for the festival by Mina Fernandes and Collete Fernandes. Young stars of Arambol will be performing the dance song Ami Nustekara’, which will showcase the many trades involved in the fishing communities. Ghumotacho Naaz will begin at 12pm. Fugdi dance will be performed by the self help group of the village. The food served for the festival will be heritage food that goes back to the pre-1975 era, which includes Kanji or pez, pickle, dry fish, fried fish, prawn curry and Sambaranchem koddi’. With over 1000 people involved in the festival, the cooking responsibilities were divided among the seven wards of the village. The food is been catered for 2000 people and will be served on patravalis’ and pez in kottios. The slogan of the festival is Goa says no to plastic straws’. Besides the stage activities, there will be more happening on the side-line with artists drawing and sketching the happenings of the festival, basket weaving, coconut leaves weaving and an exhibition of nets by net-makers who will help identify which net is used for what catch. Once the catch is pulled ashore, 20 baskets will be placed for sorting of the fish and the fish will be identified. Three colleges, Don Bosco College, Panjim, St Xavier’s College, Mapusa and Dhempe College, Miramar will be documenting the festival. The students have been researching and preparing for the festival in advance. St Xavier’s College is working on the documentation of the hunters of the fish; Dhempe College is documenting the entire festival while students of Don Bosco are already at Arambol as they document the lives of the Ramponkar. All the boats going for fishing that day will be donating the fish for the festival and there will be live cooking of the fish in the hay, explains Marius. Living with the members of the thriving fishing community for a few days, Marius has seen how the villagers are going out of the way to prepare for this festival. This community has been involved in fishing for the last six generations with no outsiders. Fishing at sea is very risky and life threatening. While the men are at sea, the mother and wives and children are worried. When they see the boat is coming back, they rush to the shore with pez, tea and sandwiches and snacks for the men. After taking a break as the fish is sorted and sold in the market, the men return to the beach to clean their nets and prepare for the next fishing expedition. Some boats go back nearly 3-4 times to the sea depending on the weather. One veteran fisherman who has been in the trade for 60 years told me that on September 14 this year, they caught the highest catch ever! The season has been great this year, concludes Marius.