The
agenda of our tour is not about staying in the hotel, enjoying the food and view
of Baguio, one of the primary mission is to watch, attend and cover the
Panagbenga 2013 in Baguio City with the theme for this year is “A Blooming
Odyssey”. The Panagbenga aka Flower Festival was created back in the 90’s in
order to bring back Baguio’s shape after the city was damaged badly by the
earthquake. The business in Baguio City like hotels, restaurants, entertainment,
stores and etc got a little help from the festival to move on and rebuild its
beautiful city of the pines.
This year is my 1st time to attend the
Panagbenga festival 2013, it’s a 2 month plan and this tour started after a chat
with Vincent of
www.lakbaybaguio.com
last November 2012, and I told him to organize something for the bloggers in
order for us to experience and attend the Panagbenga. It all went well and
organized, and we are here finally for our day 1 in Baguio City.
As
soon as we arrived in Baguio City at 6am, we went straight to Azalea Residences
hotel to check in, leave our back packs and eat our breakfast. Vincent told us
that our assembly is at 6:30am, and that’s a call time for us to start walking
from the hotel up to Session Road.
The entire Session road is closed and
there’s no other way to get there from the hotel. All vehicles are re-route to a
different direction and most vehicles avoid Session roads because the entire
parade starts there.
I also learned that the Panagbenga festival is
composed of two kinds of parade and competition. One is the grand street dance
contest and the other one is the parade float contest. The grand street dance
contest is participated by various members of a school, university, colleges,
and organizations or community. Participants are also from outside Baguio City,
they have participants coming from Kalinga and Tabuk, all are under Benguet
province.
The long walk from the hotel is like around 20 minutes, we
reached the best place to view the Panagbenga festival, that is in the
intersection of NORTH DRIVE and SESSION ROAD. We stayed near the NBI and DILG
office, it’s the start of the parade and there’s a great view of the parade from
above. The parade will walk on the road going up to the other side of Session
Road. I’m glad that our guide, Vincent, taught us to stay there and guided us
til the parade is done.
Here are my 50+ photos of the Panagbenga festival
2013
PMA-ers
played and dance the Gangnam Style, since they are first on the line of the
parade, they started first and gave a giggle to the spectators.
Then
the parade was followed by various foreign communities from Korea, Canada, USA,
China and then followed by various groups like the Girl Scout of the
Philippines- Baguio chapter. They carried some artwork that they customized for
the festival. I’m not sure if its for sale after the festival.
School
and organizations got their own marching band
Here’s
my view from the highest road of Session Road. See the awesome view as they
approach us.
I
got teary eyes when I saw these colorful costumes and dance number of students,
I just can’t believe that I’m in Panagbenga and its one of my dream come true. I
serve this as my training ground for the Sinulog and Maskara Festival.
More
colorful costumes coming up
More
marching band
My
area, my legs are in pain because we stand here for hours waiting for the
festival, the best TIP here is that you bring your own monoblock chair and try
to seat here to reserve your spot as early as 6am. Seat on the left side (if you
are facing the parade) because the sun rises and the rays of the sun points to
the right side.
btw, it was cold in the morning and even there’s a ray
of the sun hitting my skin, I still get sun burned.
advice: apply sun block
lotion
Each
of the marching band plays the Panagbenga music, while others are playing music
from One Direction, Maroon 5 and also more Gangnam style. Others are dancing
while playing their instruments
Colorful
marching band all wearing the same uniform
There
are no real flowers here in the street dance parade, the real flowers in exhibit
will be in the grand float parade. So expect lots of fake flowers and homemade
flowers.
Student’s
didn’t stop dancing, they need to walk up and down the road and perform their
dance routine in every crowd infront of them. Other people request that they
dance, but its up to the team leader to give the go signal to their group if
they will dance or not.
the
parade is composed of
1. Team leader
2. Majorette
3. Marching
band
4. Dancing group
5. Production assistant
6. Water boys
7.
Security
8. Photographer
9. and lots of assistant
One
of my favorite street dance parade is to see kids wearing different Benguet
tribe costume
Everyone
smiled to us and give all the energy.
Its
awesome also to see kids play bamboo instruments, this part amazes me and I got
the idea to collect some of it, well I have the tambol and kubing already, and
now these bamboo percussions are now on my list to own.
After
the dancing, I got surprised again to see the cape of their costume turned into
wings, they wave and all are in sync dancing…astig!
More
colorful costumes, it looks like some costumes are inspired from Mardi Gras
style
Very
creative costume design….
here’s
one of my favorite view..college girls dancing in costume
They
carry vegetables and show off how they dance and it was like giving thanks to
their Bathala.
Re-enactment
of an Igorot prince
yes..they
are real spears.
hello
flower girl!
more
dancing act…
I
got tired of my place and transferred in the middle of the road, it’s a
restricted area and only photographers with event IDs are allowed to stand here,
well..I got away and stood there for a minute and transferred in the other side
of the road to get a good vantage point.
I
stood on top of the island of the intersection hahhaha.
Hello!
from Tabuk City group
This
lady igorot carries this set of pots on her head all through out the
parade…wow!
strong balance and neck energy
Igorot
friends dance and play with their gongs
all
are barefooted and topless, the cold breeze didn’t stop them in dancing
Balancing
act… wow!
I’m
not sure if their group is Ifugao or Igorot…I’m having a hard time to identify
the two tribes
Girls
in colorful hats dance all the way
All
with smiles and cute projection
it’s
a flower festival…so expect giant butterflies flying in
Another
design of their costume made by weaving
Men
carries their Bul-ol or anito
The
banners with sunflower designs add more color and beauty to their street
parade
Others
improvised by using recyclable materials
More
dancing on the street!
He’s
dancing and not hunting.. yup real spear
I
like this kid… he dance gracefully… he deserves a nice snap shot.
The
street dance parade composed of 12 participants for this year’s Panagbenga
Festival 2013, all of them went to the grand stand in Burnham park to perform in
a large audience and be judged right away. We didn’t witness the entire show
there, but a local tv in Baguio City broadcasted the entire show for us. One of
the local tv is GMA and they uploaded the whole stream in their Youtube channel.
Watch it here :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIW5VJjAYOc
Here’s
a modern Igorot…in shades and looks like he’s rapping
Congratulations
to all groups who joined in Panagbenga 2013. For me..all of you are
winners!
After
the parade, we re-group here in the intersection of North Drive and Session
roads, here at the group pic are the Manila x Cebu X Cordillera bloggers group.
fellow
blogger and photogs – Enzo of
www.juanmanilaexpress.com and Raffy
of
www.pinoytravelblog.com
I
took a group pic of the security, red cross and street team of Panagbenga
2013
After
the parade, all vendors invade the streets to sell their goods. Most benta here
are the taho and mineral water. Here’s Raffy checking out some cheap sun
glasses. I’m tempted to buy but I don’t have a smaller bill that day.
Atty
Ethelbert and Jaysee of
www.cebubloggers.net went busy for an
early photo op
After
the parade, we walked up and down in Session Road and went straight to Burnham
Park. Here we saw a Pizza Hut staff wearing a Panagbenga theme costume to greet
everyone and invite them to eat in their resto. All establishments in Baguio
City are decorated inline with the Panagbenga Festival.
Whew!!! that’s my
day 1 coverage of the Panagbenga Festival 2013.
Check my next post for the
grand float parade!