Veteran drum and lyre, cultural and festival dance groups in the city stamped their class and dominated the various categories of the grand streetdancing competition of the 27th edition of the Panagbenga or the Baguio flower festival over the weekend.
Thousands of streetdance performers from the 32 participating contingents thrilled the crowd gathered along the parade route from Upper Session road up to the Melvin Jones football field with the choreographed moves of certain cultural practices from the different parts of the Cordillera and the Ilocos Region.
Further, the crowd that was gathered within the Melvin Jones football field was given added entertainment with the mandatory performances of the participating streetdancing contingents up to the late afternoon of Saturday.
Perennial drum and lyre competition champion Baguio Central School retained its crown for the said competition after besting 3 other competitors in the drum and lyre category while Tuba Central School pulled out a surprise when it landed second in the competition edging out Josefa Carino Elementary School which settled for third place and Lucban elementary School that placed fourth.
Baguio Central School took home the grand prize of P150,000, Tuba Central School settled for the P100,000 second prize while Josefa Carino Elementary School got the P70,000 third prize.
In the cultural dance group category, the Saeng Ya Kasay of the University of the Cordilleras (UC) bested 16 others to bag the P100 cash prize Uggayam of San Vicente settled for second place with a cash prize of P70,000 while the P50,000 cash prize for third place went to Laban di Ilagan Indigenous Peoples Organization of Sabangan, Mountain province. The remaining participating groups got P40,000 each as consolation prizes.
The St. Louis University (SLU) contingent dominated the festival dance category and was able to bring home the P200,000 cash prize, Rizal National School of Arts and Trade bagged the P100,000 cash prize for second place while the University of the Cordillera settled for the P70,000 cash prize for third place. Each of the 8 participating festival dance groups received P50,000 each as consolidation prizes for sacrificing their time, effort and resources on joining the prestigious highlight of the Panagbenga this year.
The top winners in each of the 3 categories such as the Baguio Central School, the Saeng Ya Kasay and the St. Louis University also received gift checks amounting to P5,000 per contingent from Mang Inasal.
The crowd composed of residents and tourists alike eagerly waited along the parade route to witness the varied performances from the participating groups that ranged from courtship dances, thanksgiving rituals for bountiful harvest among others aside from showcasing the different festivals conducted in the different parts of the region.
The conduct of the grand street dance parade was the first since the cancellation of the major events lined up for the flower festival in 2020 primarily because of the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic that caused a standstill in the economic activities of people in the whole world.
The 32 participating contingents was the highest participation recorded among drum and lyre contingents, cultural dance and festival groups in the grand streetdancing parade since the inception of the city’s major crowd drawing event some 27 years ago.
