Media Release

Manchester, Sep 12: Konkani Cultural Association, popularly known as KCA-UK celebrated Monti-Festh along with its 15th year of service to the community on September 7 in Manchester-UK. Approximately 300 Konkani speaking people from different parts of United Kingdom gathered on time as one family to celebrate this event.

The celebration began with a procession carrying a statue of Mother Mary, live band performance from Brass Band Group Preston, led by Anil D’Souza uplifted the spirit of participants. Laveena Monis gave introduction to the celebration. This was soon followed by the shower of flowers by the children and the adults as an offering to Infant Mary to commemorate her birthday; whilst the band and Choir simultaneously sang the hymn "Morieak Hogolxieam". Fr. Henry Sequeira blessed the Novem.

The first reading was read by Reinal Priya D’Mello and the second by Henry Mendonca. In his homily Fr Sequeira explained that ‘Value of Family unity and the importance of mother in the family life’ The choir supported the holy Mass by melodious singing, led by Stan Mendonca Manchester along with Sujith Rodrigues, Raj and Mukesh Kannan.

Prior to the end of the mass Marina Monis thanked the priest, choir team and all the people for their devotional participation during the holy mass. Special thanks to Alwyn Buthello for setting up the statue of mother Mary.

At the end of the mass elderly people who were amongst the assemblage were invited to the dais to actively participate in mixing the blessed corn with the milk which was later shared with all the guests. Joe Andrade and family sponsored the flowers to the altar.

Lyza Barboza and Vivek Cutinha sponsored the soft drink and cake to all the participants.

Stan Mendonca brilliantly compered the event in his unique style. President of KCA-UK Santhosh Pinto extended his warm welcome to all the guests. Vinod Barboza along with Anna Saldanha carried out the presentation highlighting key events and the progress at KCA-UK for the last 15 years.

Families, who cooked the food for the Montifest along with individuals who served KCA UK with their hard work, dedication and exceptional talent were recognised for their contribution. This was followed by group song called ‘KCA– Manchester’ written and composed by well-known Konkani singer Stan Mendonca was sung and well appreciated by the audience.

Fr Henry Sequeira recognised the contribution of Santhoish Pinto as President for the last 6 years and the work towards the development of KCA-UK.

Cultural activities consists of traditional Indian classical dance followed by some amazing Bollywood dances, singing, and comedy, entertain the audience with great unity and perfection. Bollywood dances were choreographed by Sonal Mendonce.

In the traditional meal there were seven different types of delicious vegetables, including Sanna, Aluo Detto, Rice and Vorn, which were prepared by KCA UK members, later served to the KCA-UK guests. KCA-UK specially thanked Martin Saldanha, Richard D’Silva, Anil D’Souza, Cyril Pinto, Kenny D’sa and Vincent Rodrigues Nottingham for their dedicated work and also for their planning and co-ordination in arranging the food for all participants in time.

Vinjoy Rego and Daniel volunteered to dedicate themselves to cover the entire day’s photography and video respectively.

Benson Moras Sheffield was the DJ for the event also responsible for the Sounds Systems for the day and Ronal Lobo was responsible for the stage set-up.

Ravi Pinto and Marina Monis carried out a fund raising event for the Association in the form of auctions of items specially brought from Mangaluru. The fund collected from this auction will be used towards the day’s expenses.

Anthony Mary and Stany Rodrigues conducted the Bingo, where the prizes were awarded to the winners.

The vote of thanks was given by Sujith Rodrigues; he expressed his gratitude and thanked everyone who directly or indirectly supported to make the event a grand success. Sujith also gratefully expressed special thanks to the people who worked behind the screen for days to make the event a very success.

Sincere thanks goes to Members of MUKA – Nottingham for their unconditional support during the event.

The consistent performance of Brass Band from Preston was well noted throughout the event.

The event was concluded with a tea followed by baila dance.