LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – The municipal government and its partners are ready for the conduct of the lined-up activities for this year’s Strawberry festival to help sustain the recovery of the local tourism industry from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mayor Romeo K. Salda said that the Strawberry Festival Executive Committee decided that the main program will be held on March 15, 2024 while the crowd drawing streetdancing and float parade will be done on March 16, 2024 which falls on a weekend to ensure the greater participation of residents and tourists alike.
Earlier, the municipal government requested the Office of the President to declare March 15, 2024 which is a Friday as a special holiday in the municipality in lieu of March 18, 2024 which is a Monday to allow residents and tourists to enjoy the festivities during the staging of the highlights of the Strawberry Festival.
The local chief executive revealed that the local government invited Senator Imee Marcos to be the guest speaker during the main program and the streetdancing and float parade for her to witness the evolution of the town’s crowd drawing event which is now one of the major festivities being frequented by tourists in the Cordillera.
Part of the initial activities of the Strawberry Festival is a commercial trade fair within the local government-owned parking area along Km. 5 to serve as an income-generating event to raise funds to defray some of the expenses for the staging of the festival.
Mayor Salda expressed hope there will be more participating contingents joining the streetdance parade to entice people to make it a point to watch the highlights of this year’s festival events.
According to him, organizers will have to continue to innovate on the activities during the staging of the Strawberry Festival so that residents and visitors will always have something new to witness when they visit the locality in time for the festival.
He stipulated that strawberry-inspired products will also be made available for people to patronize and help in the recovery of the local tourism industry that had been heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic especially for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to be able to bring back the vibrance of their economic activities at par or even exceeding pre-pandemic levels.
The town’s Strawberry Festival has been an institutionalized crowd drawing event that will come after the conduct of the Panagbenga or the Baguio flower festival in nearby Baguio City to help provide tourists with the option to stay for a longer time and have a chance to enjoy the festivities that had been prepared for the said festival.
Salda assured the tourists of the sufficient supply of strawberries during the duration of the festival because the said fruit is also in season and that the local government is pushing for the sustained production of the various varieties of strawberries such as the red and white colored varieties.
La Trinidad is the major source of strawberries being sold inside and outside the municipality with the vast tracks of strawberry plantations in the different parts of the valley where thousands of farmers rely on strawberry production as the major means of livelihood over the past several decades. By Dexter A. See
