San Francisco’s Soli-Soli Festival

After a year of absence, the organizers of the Municipality of San Francisco, Camotes, through the efforts of Mayor Al Arquillano and VM/Pacijan Tourism Council President Allan Arquillano, finally decided to rehire this writer as their over-all artistic director for the 2008 Soli-Soli Street Dance Festival on the 16th of March.

Preparation was actually time constrained since the dance workshop was set only a month before the contest and their desire to organize the contingents’ presentations into one big dance production came in the nick of time. Grand finale production rehearsal was realized in just two weeks!

Unlike in the preceding years, notable improvement with regards to mastery and technical knowhow of local choreographers in choreographing contingents with authority came into focus. This has been evidently attributed to the annual dance workshop geared towards improvement, not only of skills but also, of accumulated knowledge.

This year, Soli-Soli dance fever has spread throughout the locality that even very small kids are no strangers to the basic steps and beat.

Five elementary and five high school groups competed in their respective categories. The victors, Santiago elementary school and Santiago National High School.

Topping the defining moment was the announcement of festival queen candidate ELEAZARLENE SURALTA from SNHS (Santiago National High School) as this year’s winner.

Soli-Soli is a grass that grows in the vicinity of Lake Danao, the second cleanest lake in the country. This grass is manufactured into mats, hats, bags and other decorative materials.

Soli-Soli Festival is an occupational festival injected with religious sentiments in honor of its Patron St. Joseph. This festival was hatched in coordination with the Provincial Government and Department of Tourism under the slogan: One town, one product.