“Paris is always a good idea,” Audrey Hepburn is famously supposed to have said. And the same may very well hold true for Goa. Fabulously popular with tourists, both from India and outside, Goa’s beaches and party circuit have always attracted crowds and the place seems in no danger of loosing its appeal anytime soon. The announcement then, of the Food and Cultural Festival, coinciding with the Goa Carnival is just the cherry on top of an already delicious cake.

A tradition that began in Portuguese Goa, the Carnival, like its counterparts at several places over the world, takes place immediately before Lent, the Christian holy period that insists on simplicity and atonement. While the Food and Cultural Festival will start a day earlier, the Carnival begins on February 9, with an opening ceremony that is sure to knock your socks off. Over the following three days and nights, the streets will transform into open party venues with bands and dances and parades of people dressed in costumes or almost anything that catches their whimsy.

As always, there will be float parades in four cities: Panaji, Margao, Vasco and Mapusa. Presided over by King Momo, a king of chaos who is the carnival mascot, the celebrations will flow unabated, which include fireworks, music concerts, parties and parades. But the real lure this year will be the big Bollywood presence. Actor-filmmaker Farhan Akhtar is all set to sing to the crowds and also ride on one of the carnival floats. Besides him, artists like Anushka Manchanda, Remo Fernandes, Neha Dhupia and Isha Koppikar are also expected to come.

The festival and carnival are bound to be big successes with attendance expected to reach new highs. Nikhil Desai, Goa’s Director of Tourism, said, “Last year, almost 80,000 tourists visited the state during the carnival. This year, we expect the number to double.”