This year’s Panagbenga or Baguio Flower Festival was launched successfully in spite of a sudden heavy rain that marooned many participants and spectators last Wednesday, February 1.
Hopefully, there wouldn’t be many participants ending up sick just like what happened, I think it was in 2002, when street dancing parade performers and musical bands kept marching to make the show go on despite the downpour of another strong rain then.
This year, although there were marching bands from the Philippine Military Academy and Saint Louis University to entertain the crowds with their music, the real show stoppers were the children belonging to the 12 drum and lyre troupes in the elementary division that joined the street dancing parade which coursed through the city’s main streets and ended up at the Baguio Athletic Bowl.
Setting the pace of unifying Baguio City with its adjoining towns of La Trinidad, Itogon, Sablan, Tuba and Tublay; the Panagbenga not only serves as an identity created to reflect the rich cultural heritage of Baguio City and the BLISTT area, but also of the whole Cordillera region.
With its main events organized and managed by the Baguio Flower Festival Foundation, it is now also manned by around 3,000 volunteers from different sectors of society, but several civic organizations have also added many other events and activities which are privately run and funded.
These events include the Opening Ceremony and Parade, as well as the Baguio Blooms Exposition with its 12 landscape exhibits along Juan Luna and Lake Drives, which were both launched last Wednesday; the Handog ng Panagbenga sa Pamilya Baguio, which will open at the Melvin Jones grandstand and Burnham football field on February 12; the school-based competitions, which will open for all elementary and high schools citywide with programs to be held at the Baguio City multi-purpose hall and at the Baguio City National High School on February 15; the PMA Alumni Homecoming Weekend, which will be conducted at Fort del Pilar from February 17 to 19; the Flower Tee Open golf tournament, which will also open at the Baguio Country Club on February 17; the Grand Street Dancing Parade, which will start at the Panagbenga Park and snake through the city’s main thoroughfares on February 25; Exhibitors’ Day, which will be held at the Ganza parking lot from February 25 to 26; the Grand Float Parade, which will start at the corner of Session Road Extension and North Drive, and will also go through the usual route before ending up at the Burnham football field on February 26; Session Road in Bloom, which will close down the city’s premier thoroughfare to vehicular traffic from February 27 to March 5; the Pony Boys’ Day, which will be celebrated at Wright Park on March 4; the Flower Tee Open golf tournament awards program, which will be conducted at the Melvin Jones grandstand and Burnham football field on March 5; and the Grand Fireworks Display, which will be launched from five different stations city-wide also in the early evening of March 5.
It may be recalled that way back in 1995, when Atty. Damaso Bangaoet Jr. proposed the idea of organizing a flower festival to be held in February to the directors of the John Hay Poro Point Development Corporation, his suggestion received their immediate approval.
He explained then that it would be better if it was to be held in February because the weather in this part of the year is perfect – being the start of spring – plus it gives other people a reason to visit us between Christmas and the Holy Week.
Thereafter the idea was presented to the different sectors of Baguio society and their response, also warm and immediate, eventually grew as a wellspring of community support.
The official logo was selected from among those submitted by students of all levels at the Camp John Hay Art Contest, and Trisha Tabangin’s winning entry of a spray of wild sunflowers was selected.
The festival hymn was composed by the SLU bandmaster, Professor Macario Fronda, and this was taught to all the school children participating in the drum and lyre competition. It is still that music that is played during the parades all throughout the festival.
In the beginning, the Panagbenga was a series of celebrations that were held over a period of 10 days encompassing two weekends: the first being the launching ceremonies, the weekdays being Session Road in Bloom and the last weekend was when the Grand Parades were held.
However, due it its rising popularity, the period was extended to two weeks, then three, and then held for the whole month of February, always taking full advantage of the presence of the alumni of the Philippine Military Academy during PMA Week, which is also timed for Valentine’s Day. Now the festival stretches to five weeks.
The Panagbenga has always received huge media coverage because of the instantaneous popularity it has enjoyed from the very beginning.
Every year, as it has always been said before, visitors are treated to a display of the strength of the local community sprit as residents “stage the hottest show in the coolest city of the Philippines.”