BAGUIO CITY – The local government and organizers of the annual conduct of the Panagbenga or the Baguio flower festival want the public to individually and collectively contribute in efforts to introduce the timely and appropriate innovations to the two major highlights of the city’s premier crowd drawing event, the grand streetdancing parade and the grand float parade, to ensure the sustained influx of residents and visitors to witness the festival events.
Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan said the Baguio Flower Festival Foundation, Inc. (BFFFI) has always been open to suggestions and recommendations on how to further improve the festival highlights through the years and some of the proposed improvements were considered in the past.
“We have never closed our doors to the suggestion and recommendations of the public on how to improve the conduct of the flower festival that is why there had always been slight adjustments in the conduct of the festival events because we continue to listen to the desire of the viewers on how to further improve the staging of the different events,” Domogan stressed.
It has been observed that through the past several years, spectators wanting to witness the grand streetdancing parade drastically dropped because there are no new performances that could be witnessed while people wanting to see the flower-decorated floats continue to increase.
One of the suggestions that cropped up during last week’s Kapihan sa Session road in Bloom is for organizers to consider conducting the parade of the small floats and the streetdancing competition on a Saturday and for the parade of the large floats and marching bands competition and streetdancing open category on Sunday.
Domogan welcomed the suggestion but called on the local and national media to help the Panagbenga organizers disseminate the information that there will be two float parades once the proposal will be approved during their meetings in the future.
Aside from the proposal, the BFFFI is also trying its best to convince the different higher education institutions in the city to field their streetdancing contingents in the future conduct of the flower festival so that there will be increased attractions during the grand streetdancing parade in addition to the increasing number of participants to the elementary and secondary categories.
He emphasized that the Panagbenga is a government-led and private sector-supported event that is why the inputs of everyone have the bearing, especially when the proposals are meritorious upon the evaluation of the panel of experts assigned to do so, because what the local government and the organizers are eying is the sustained promotion of the festival as one of the premier must-see festivals in the country.
Domogan expressed his gratitude to the faculty, staff, children and students as well as the parents of the participating schools because they were able to continue showcasing the rich culture and traditions of the Cordillerans through the dances that they performed during the staging of the major highlights of the festival events which had been witnessed by the growing number of spectators visiting the city for the festival.
By Dexter A. See
