IT’S that time of the year again when the temperature dips to chill the bones and the festive fever rises to its peak.
Panagbenga indeed can be called the festival of festivals when colors of fire and hues of pastels swirl in street dances and barren grounds in the city come alive with instant landscape gardens so pleasing to look at.
The month-long festival is a festival for the senses – visual delights in the aesthetics of gardens and floral parades, the vibrant sound of gongs, lyre and drums that fill the air, the gastronomical treats offered by Baguio’s known chefs and best secrets, and the scent of flowers can’t be missed as the essence of the festival is in the blossoms by itself.
As the calendar suggests, the city, like the meaning of Panagbenga – a season of blossoming – wakes up to the line-up of activities the festival offers. And being a month of love, the sense of touch is ever present, with lovers and friends and family strolling hand-in-hand to relish what the festival offers.
Panagbenga opened on February 1 with a ribbon cutting to mark the entry to the space of 11 landscapes – the silent splendor of the festival -and the opening of Baguio Blooms, Market Encounter, a flora and flavor fair on the other extreme, a bustling chaos of exciting products to explore.
With the theme “Celebrating Traditions, Embracing Innovation,” the children of the city will start the street activities in a drum and lyre competition on February 3 where schoolchildren will dance to the melody played by their drum and lyre band.
Participating schools get a subsidy of P100,000 each. Frederico Alquiros, president of the Baguio Flower Festival Foundation (BFFFI) gave tribute to the schoolchildren as the biggest presence and contributor to the city events. And perhaps the most disarming.
It happens that some other highlight occasions happen in the month of February, and are thereby subsumed in the calendar of events. Just as lively is the city Spring Festival Little Chinatown on February 11 and the dragon dance parade on February 13, a dynamic show of ancient Chinese tradition and a prelude to lovers’ day on February 14. Families always look forward to the Kite Flying Day at the Melvon Jones football ground, this time on February 11. Undeniably a day of heavy traffic, thousands of guests will be flocking to the Philippine Military Academy for their Grand Alumni Homecoming and many leading government officials, once stalwart young cadets turned politicians in later years, will be around to grace the occasion.
In between are school garden activities and competitions and other floral activities.
A show business treat, for big fans of Ian Veneracion, if he happens to be your heartthrob, will be the star of a concert Ligawan: A Valentine Series on February 15 at the Baguio Convention Center. Did you know that he loves to sing as much as he loves acting?
A quiet event is the fluvial parade at the Burnham Lake, where the swan boats will be adorned with floral themes, enjoyed by mostly the residents. That is before the grand parades happen – the highlight of the festival that draws the hundreds of thousands of visitors to watch the much talked about spectacle.
For indeed, main thoroughfares always burst into a kaleidoscope of movements and colors during the Grand Street Dance Parade and floats magically created into thematic kingdoms made of flowers glide slowly along the roads. They will happen one day apart on February 24 and 25. Neighboring towns will have some kind of participation, one way or another. Lifetime chair of the BFFFI, former mayor Mauricio Domogan, said that fostering good relationships with the nearby towns is one of the objectives of the flower festival.
The closure of the grand parades opens the main road to Session Road in Bloom, a week-long trade of selected goods and surprise servings by both known and quaint food establishments. Session Road in Bloom, together with the Market Encounter, are the two main revenue drawing events of Panagbenga, keeping it afloat after the city subsidy of P4 million was withdrawn years ago. Alquiros said, “It is best this way because in exchange the city lets us use the roads and the parks for free.” He added that their main sponsors have remained over the years, albeit with small contributions but offset with sponsorships of smaller companies.
The festival routine is well established by now, achieving a level of order as compared to earlier years, and residents have become resigned to both the trifle and big inconveniences. But then again, so is it in life where times offer different surprises to spare one from the humdrum of living. – Marilou Guieb / Photos by Mau Victa
