Creative arts festival set

MANILA, Philippines - The Fourth Philippine International Creative Content and Arts Festival or PICCA Fest, the biggest comics and animation event in the country featuring three days of comics and cartoon exhibits, animation showings, talks by international speakers, workshops, competitions, recognition awards, caricature sessions, industry roundtable chats, and cosplay, will be held on Oct. 5 - 7 at the University of Makati.

The creative content industry contributes around $650 billion annually to the global economy, with Asian countries such as Korea, Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia now aiming to get a bigger portion of the pie. China alone estimates that it’s A&C (animation and comics) sectors contributed Y50 biilion last year to the local economy.

PICCA Fest, an annual event run by the Philippine International Cartoon, Comics, and Animation, Inc., aims to promote the growth of creative content in the country, specifically comics, animation, gaming and sound design, to help the Philippines make its way to the list of the most globally competent contributors in the industry.

PICCA believes that intensive training of students and young professionals to develop quality original creative outputs will impel the country to be at the forefront of the world’s lucrative creative content industry.

PICCA was organized by the same people behind Mango Comics, Seventoons, Holy Cow Animation, Samahang Kartunista ng Pilipinas (SKP), Komikon, and the Creative Media Professionals Guild of Asia and the Pacific (CMPGAP).

Sponsors for the fourth annual PICCA Fest include the Information, Communication and Technology Office (ICTO) of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST); Panda Travel Service; International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications, and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR);

Product support includes Wacom, Colleen art supplies, Coca Cola, Magnolia Food Products.