Media Release

Aug 14: The arrival of the monsoons brings in the ‘off-season’, and the Travel and Tourism segment witnesses a change of fortunes, both in terms of revenue maximisation and tourism potential. It is precisely this gap which needs to be bridged and thus it is our endeavour in projecting ‘Rain Drop’ tourism in Goa as an inviting concept to the rest of the world.

The ‘Rain or Shine’ festival is scheduled and projected to be one such calendar event which will create such opportunities where we can derive optimum benefit of our monsoon periods, thus promoting Goa as a tourist destination for 365 days of the year.

This year the ‘Rain or Shine’ festival will feature the best in music, food, dance, art, and cinema and more importantly celebrating World Goa Day.The first ‘’World Goa Day’’ celebrations, was held at the Heritage Jazz Street, Campal and it featured the best of Konkani artists from Goa.

Lorna Cordeiro, also known as Goa’s Nightingale, a popular Konkani singer and several other forgotten Goan musicians were roped in to perform at this gala event. Lorna rendered her evergreen songs and proved to the audience that age had not dimmed her skills but rather, matured them to a new, higher level. Such was the energy of Lorna’s performance that Remo Fernandes, the renowned Goan star singer joined her as a surprise for the famous track ‘Bebdo’, thrilling the 1000 plus audience.

Co-incidentally this was the first time in history that Remo and Lorna shared the stage together. Audiences braved in the heavy rains typical of Goa in August, to attend the show. Goans as well as visitors to the state called upon ‘Trancemedia’ to make the ‘Rain or Shine’ festival event a bigger and better concept every coming year.

Konkani Rocks; a ‘’Trancemedia’’ property, took this as a challenge and decided to crank it up a bit. The maestros of Konkani music, The Monsorate Brothers were showcased at an international platform in 2011 as part of the ‘Konkani Rocks Europe!’ expedition that took place from May 13-15, 2011 in the Netherlands. This was the first time ever that Konkani music was presented to the world at an international standard.

The Goan delegation of musicians and supporters of around 50 people at The Netherlands at the ‘Konkani Rocks Europe’ festival in May 2011
Lorna and Remo performed for the first time in history together at ‘Rain or Shine, Konkani Rocks 2010'.

The second edition of the ‘Rain or Shine, Konkani Rocks’ was held yet again with the Monsorate Brothers, who had rocked Europe early 2011.

Accompanying the powerful 8 member brass band were Goa’s varied Konkani stars such as Sonia Sirsat, Olavo Rodrigues, Seby Fernandes, Veeam Braganza, Effie Monsorate, Maruskha Rebello, Jas Rose, Varun Carvalho, etc.

The Mega Fiesta

This would be Goa's Biggest Rain Extravaganza for the year 2012 featuring the best of Konkani music from Goa and Mangalore; it will be the ultimate clash of two delightfully different musical styles that will open the doors to take Konkani music to the skies.

Showcasing this will the very famous ‘The Mandd Sobhan’ 10 member Troupe of Guinness World Record Fame led by Eric Ozario (Vishw Konkani Kala Ratn) and from Goa are Konkani Pop star O’Luv Rodrigues along with Goa Fado Queen Sonia Shirsat who will be dishing out stunning Konkani numbers.

Also accompanying them will be ace saxophonist and trumpeter, Joaquim D’Souza who will lead his 5 member ensemble into the night. Besides, the now famous theatre personality D Y S P Sammy Tavares will also be present and Aniseto Lourenco will also sing along Sonia Shirsat an original song from the theatre that is now running full house across Goa. Additionally, there are lots of surprises that match the stature of this premier event in the Konkani calendar.

O’Luv, Sonia Shirsat,Eric Ozario and The Mandd Sobhan Troupe that night will bring together diverse elements of Konkani music together, and is designed to bring about a complete revolution in the way Konkani music is seen. The official pre-party of ‘Rain or Shine, Konkani Rocks’ will be held at Martins Corner on August 15, 7pm onwards.

All are invited to have a feel of the bigger celebration due that weekend thereby promoting Goan cuisine and music. Konkani Rocks is going to support and promote such initiatives and help in making the World Goa Week a true celebration of Goan Spirit.

Last year there was a tremendous response of the ‘Konkani Revolution’ amongst our media friends and affiliated Konkani lovers. And for the same reason we are having a dinner party for our media friends and associates on August 18. 8pm onwards at the Gonsalves Mansion.

‘Rain or Shine’, will be held on August 19 at the Heritage Jazz Street, Campal.

A large section of Konkani music and drama fraternity will also be present. This will also give great boost to inbound and outbound tourism, and we are confident that we will be in a position to take forward the great energy that was expended in the European tour by bringing in quality tourism via the cultural route, something that is so desperately needed considering that we are beating the dead horse by encouraging beach tourism which is already reached alarming proportions.