MUMBAI: As the week-long Bandra Fair, held in honour of the Feast of the Nativity of Mother Mary on September 8, draws to a close on Sunday, the annual festival appears to have lost some of its traditional sheen and enthusiasm this year, with several stalls lying vacant and long-standing vendors and residents blaming steeply higher stall costs, lower footfall and a lottery-based allotment system for the change.
The fair, one of Mumbai’s oldest, is believed to be more than 300 years old. The event has traditionally drawn visitors of different faiths, with older estimates putting its footfall at around more than 100,000 visitors a day. Rupesh Gomes, an original stall owner whose family has a receipt dating back to 1947, said he lost out in the lottery despite his long association with the fair. He said around 1,300 applications were received for the available stalls, while 130 stalls were put up for open bidding and 20 reserved for the Missionaries of Charity.
Linking Road has come to Bandra Fair and traditional sellers have lost out,” Gomes said. Because of the hike in prices, more than 20 stalls are vacant. However, this year, several stalls remained vacant, while traditional sellers of Goan delicacies alleged that they were increasingly being edged out of a fair with which their families have been associated for generations. “The tradition has died as outsiders who don’t know how to run stalls have been allotted stalls. This is a traditional fair that has been held for over a century. Original stall owners such as Pinto, Diwakar and Carvalho are no longer making and selling Goan delicacies. There is only one stall left. Other stall owners are paying through their noses.
Vendors said the change was particularly visible in the disappearance of familiar stalls selling Goan sweets and food such as bebinca, dodol, kadio-bodios, sausages, chorizo and sorpotel, which have long been part of the fair’s distinctive culinary character.
“A person sitting in Bahrain won a stall in the online lottery and sublet it to a complete outsider. Local residents around Mount Mary Church, who did not wish to be named, said the fair had visibly lost some of its old vibrancy this year. He alleged that the online lottery system had also enabled people with no connection to the fair to secure stalls and subsequently sublet them. Subletting to outsiders who do not know about the fair is ruining the tradition. It is hurting traditional sellers who have been selling here for generations. The issue of rising stall costs and changes in allotment has been a point of contention in recent years as well. For Polly D’Souza, described as the only remaining stall owner selling Goan delicacies at the fair, keeping the tradition alive has come at a steep cost. This year there are fewer customers. I brought Goan sweets and delicacies such as bebinca and dodol from Mapusa. The police are shutting the stalls at 9pm, which has resulted in losses. The Goan food tradition has long been part of the fair’s appeal. Older accounts of the Bandra Fair describe stalls selling kadio-bodios, guava cheese, dodol and other regional sweets, alongside religious articles and other food. They attributed the lower footfall partly to the fair coinciding with Ganpati celebrations. “The fair coincided with Ganpati and hence the footfall was reduced. This is the first year the crowd has been sparse. The stalls were allotted online and there is a new management this year. They are not even respecting the old church officials. They have ruined the traditions.
Vendors said the cost of a 10ft by 10ft stall, which was earlier around ₹ 10,000, has now risen to nearly ₹ 90,000 to ₹ 1 lakh for the September 13-20 fair. In 2024, long-time vendors had similarly complained that rising rates and newer methods of allotment were making it difficult for traditional participants to return to the fair, with several stalls left vacant. D’Souza said he paid ₹ 1.5 lakh for his stall and was still making losses. “There are around 150 stalls and at least 25 are vacant. I have been selling here for 40 years, right from my grandfather’s time.
Traditional Goan fare such as sausages, chorizo, sorpotel, bebinca, dodol and kadio-bodios has increasingly been replaced by pickles and other products that are not traditionally associated with the fair, according to Gomes. It is now a commercial fair,” he said. They said the sharp increase, without corresponding civic facilities, had made it difficult for small and traditional sellers to recover their costs. Gomes also said the fair was attracting fewer visitors this year. “Both Catholics and non-Catholics visit the fair in honour of Our Lady, but the footfall has reduced this year,” he said. This fair isn’t like before,” D’Souza said. Many locals did not get stalls,” one of the residents said.
