BAGUIO CITY – The conduct of the grand float parade of the 29th edition of the Panagbenga drew a record-breaking number of participants this year that proves that the flower festival is one of the preferred crowd drawing events in the country being preferred by companies providing products and services.
Baguio Flower Festival Foundation, Inc. (BFFFI) Chief of Staff Evangeline Payno said that there are some 42 competing and non-competing floats that will be joining this year’s grand float parade compared to the 33 floats that joined the same parade last year. Of the said floats, 35 are competing floats while seven are non-competing floats.
She claimed that the significant increase in the number of participating floats was an offshoot of the surge in the entries to the small floral float or floral kart category following the interest that had been shown by associations and small businesses wanting to be part of the annual event.
The BFFFI official said that there will be 11 competing floats and one non-competing floats in the small float category, 10 competing floats in the medium float category and 14 competing and two non-competing floats in the large float category where the non-competing floats include the Paragon Suites and the Department of tourism – Cordillera. The other non-competing floats will come from the Baguio Country Club (BCC) a Hall of Famer, with two floats, SM City Baguio, also a Hall of Famer and the City of Government of Baguio that will serve as the lead float.
Payno admitted that there could have been more participating floats but the inadequate spaces to assemble the floats and the insufficient number of float makers forced some of the interested participants to back out as there is already lack of material time to work on their floats.
According to her, another factor that might have convinced companies and groups to participate in the grand float parade is the increase in the prizes of the winners of each of the categories as approved by the foundation and will take effect this year.
For the large float category, the winner will be receiving P600,000 from the previous P500,000, the second placer will be getting P400,000 from the earlier P300,000 and the third placer will be entitled to P300,000 from the previous P200,000.
For the medium float category, the winner will be receiving P350,000 from the previous P300,000, the second placer will be getting P250,000 from the previous P200,000 and the third placer will be entitled to P150,000 from the earlier P100,000.
The Philippine Military Academy (PMA) marching band, the Saint Louis University (SLU) marching band, the visiting Citizens Brigade Band of Dasmarinas, Cavite and the winners of the grand street dancing parade will accompany the different floats from Upper Session road up to the Melvin Jones football field in Burnham Park where the same will be displayed for public viewing and picture taking.
The annual grand float parade is one of the major highlights of the Panagbenga where beautifully decorated floats of participating groups and companies will be paraded for the appreciation of both residents and tourists who are eagerly awaiting the said event. By Dexter A. See
