Goa Tourism is all set to celebrate ‘Shigmo’, the annual festival of colour, culture and cuisine beginning this month-end coupled with the Goa Food and Cultural Festival 2016, which commences in the first week of April.

“Shigmo is celebrated in Goa as spring’s biggest festival which honoured the homecoming of the warriors who had left their homes and families at the end of Dussehra to fight the invaders,” says a press release by the tourism department.

During Shigmo, traditional folk dances and depiction of mythological scenes through parades all across the state are the major highlights.

People, dressed in colourful outfits, play musical instruments like the dhol tasha and flutes and go in procession, the department said.

This year, the Shigmo festivities are scheduled to begin from March 24 and will culminate on April 7, 2016 and the Goa Food and Cultural Festival 2016 is scheduled to begin from April 6 and will go on till April 10.

The two events are expected to draw lakhs of tourists to Goa as they coincide with the commencement of the summer vacation, it said.

The annual Goa Food and Cultural Festival 2016 will be held between April 6 and 10 at the D B Bandodkar Ground, Campal in Panaji.

“Festivals in Goa are celebrated with much enthusiasm both by locals and tourists. Goa celebrates a large number of festivals all through the year. However, Shigmo is one event that shows how vibrant Goa’s culture is,” State Tourism Minister Dilip Parulekar said.PTI

Shigmo is a street festival filled with colours, music, dance and float parade.