Festival offers platform for young talent

Festival offers platform for young talent


After the three days of grape escapade wine and cuisine festival, the fourth day was a stress-filled one; especially for all the eight participants who participated in the Grape Escapade 2009 queen contest. The contestants seemed anxious until the contest came to an end after the crowning of the winner.

This wine festival brought hoteliers, international wine makers, the local and the international onlookers under one roof. People got the opportunity to taste wines manufactured by different companies and also a chance to listen some great music.
When the contest began everyone�s eyes were set on the stage to see the participants walking on the ramp for the first round. Each participant dressed casually went up and posed before the audience and the four judges present and gave a brief introduction about themselves.

The four judges who judged the beauty contest were fashion designer Monty Sally, Charmaine Godhinho, Harshita Saxena and fashion photographer Prasad Pankar.
Mr Joshua Monteiro, the event head of Miss Grape Escapade 2009 queen contest said, �The contest was held to bring out the talent on the stage. Organising this event was a piece of cake for Joshua as he has many years of experience in organising such events. Probably he looks forward to have more girls participating in the event next year.

Besides Mr Joshua, Mr Armando Duart, manager of events and travels, Goa Tourism Development Corporation, too was actively involved in organising this event.
The second round was the talent round wherein each contestant got a chance to showcase her talent on the stage. Some of them sang while playing a piano but the most unique of all was the poetry recitation by one of the participant. Of course, not forgetting the salsa dancer who rocked the stage by her performance.
As the rounds progressed, the judges' task to select the best three contestants became more and more complex. Pankar said, It wasn't an easy task for us to select three beauty girls but it was our job to do so.

The last round witnessed the judges asking questions to the three selected participants with everyone with their fingers crossed hoping for the best one to win. We got to know the results after about a minute. The comperer screamed loudly to break the silence 'the Grape Escapade 2009 beauty queen' is Ms Joanne D'Cunha. Everyone applauded with a loud clap and the judges crowned the beauty queen.
Ms Shimoga Godinho was awarded the first runner up and Ms Vineeta Freitas became the second runner for the queen contest. Ms D'Cunha said, I wasn't much sure about my success because there where other participants who were really good. -PR

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