Panaji, Jan 11 (IANS): Goa's colonial legacy festival, the Carnival, will be plastic free this year, Panaji Mayor Uday Madkaikar said on Saturday.

Madkaikar also said that the festival would be held on February 22 this year.

"We will be having a plastic-free Carnival this year. Panaji as the state capital has already been deterring people from use of plastic. So banning plastic from the Carnival event will be an extension of that exercise," Madkaikar told a press conference.

Carnival processions are symbolic of Goa's colonial Portuguese legacy and are held here every year before the holy season of Lent, which is marked by fasting and an air of solemnity.

The festival, which involves a public celebration in the form of long continuous parades of gaily coloured floats, with masqueraded dancers, is led by King Momo or king of the carnival, who is a locally chosen celebrity, who is given a key to the city.

After the inaugural parade in Panaji, similar float parades will also be held in other cities namely Margao, Vasco, Ponda, Morjim and Curchorem.