BAGUIO CITY – The city’s major streets will bloom this weekend right in time for the blossoming of the flowers with the conduct of the twin highlights of the Panagbenga, popularly known as the Baguio flower festival, particularly the grand streetdancing parade on Saturday and the grand float parade on Sunday.
Thousands of residents and tourists will gather along the 4-kilometer parade route from the Panagbenga Park along South Drive up to the Melvin Jones football field in the next two days to witness the sterling performances from the participating streetdancing contingents and the beautifully decorated floats.
Cheers from the crowd await the superb performances that will be showcased by the five elementary drum and lyre contingents and seven local and visiting festival dance groups accompanied by the famous Philippine Military Academy (PMA) marching band, the Saint Louis University (SLU) marching band and the returning Citizens Brigade Band of Dasmarinas, Cavite Saturday morning. The field demonstration of the participating contingents will cap the conduct of the grand streetdancing parade where each contingent will try to win the hearts of the judges for this year’s top honors on the 29th edition of the festival.
Members of the participating contingents will surely thrill the crowd with their choreographed dances to the tune of a variety of musical compositions by local and national artists and to the official Panagbenga hymn. The contingents spent several months to practice in time for their participation to the grand streetdancing parade.
Last February 1, the five elementary drum and lyre contingents initially showcased their performances during the grand opening parade and field demonstration where 30 percent of their accumulated score will come from the initial judging that was conducted then while the remaining 70 percent will be based on their performances during the grand streetdancing parade and field demonstration right at the same place.
On Sunday, some 42 beautifully decorated floats will surely heighten the festive mood in the city as they will parade from Upper Session road up to the Melvin Jones football field where they will be displayed for public viewing and picture taking. Some 35 competing floats and seven non-competing floats will spice up the festival as they will display various creative designs mostly made up of flowers to catch the attention of the huge crowd that will gather along the parade route as early as 4 am.
The floats will be escorted by the various participating marching bands and the winners of the streedancing competition to sustain the upbeat mood of the people that will gather along the parade route and the viewers of the two parades that will be livestreamed in various social media pages.
Adding up to the eagerness of the crowd will be the surprise brand ambassadors and artists who will be riding the various floats of different product brands and giant television networks that have already confirmed their participation in the float parade. Year in and year out, many participating product brands have made it a point to have their brand ambassadors ride their floats to serve as an added attraction apart from the different colors of flowers that make up their respective floats.
Panagbenga, which is a Kankanaey term for blossoming, was used to name the city’s premier crowd drawing event, because the month-long festival that usually starts every February 1 is being done during the season where flowers being produced in nearby Benguet areas blossom. Panagbenga also enjoys the distinction of the only festival in the country that was included in the elite list of festivals by the International Festivals and Events Association.
The theme for this year’s flower festival is ‘Blossoming Beyond Boundaries’ which is an indication of the continuous expansion of the festival participants outside the city that include visiting contingents from neighboring provinces in the Ilocos and Cordillera regions.
Panagbenga organizers will continue to introduce appropriate innovations in the annual conduct of the festival to ensure that residents and tourists will be witnessing a variety of attractions in the annual conduct of the event to help draw the interest of the people to make it a point to attend the festival that will run from the first day of February up to the first week of March. By Dexter A. See
