Panagbenga 2016 launched
MANILA, Philippines – The Baguio Flower Festival, more popularly known as Panagbenga, will focus more on living flowers than short-lived cut-flowers in its 21st edition to be held in February next year.
“We are looking in that direction,” festival executive committee co-chairman Federico Alquiros said.
At last Monday’s launch in Baguio City of the festival theme “Bless the Children with Flowers,” organizers announced a revising of guidelines for the much-awaited spectacle of the Flower Float Parade, to design a float with live potted plants and flowers rather than cut flowers.
“Then we can donate the float to schools in Baguio for the children to appreciate life and nurture it,” tourism director for the Cordillera Venus Tan explained.
“We can look at a 50/50 combination of potted and cut flowers,” Alquiros said.
Panagbenga 2016 is again expected to draw throngs of revelers, especially with the completion of the Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway next year. With travel time expected to be a mere 2.5 hours from Balintawak to Baguio City, Tan said Baguio could easily become a weekend destination.
Panagbenga, added Tan, is aligned with the tourism department’s national campaign Rebloom: “We want to see Panagbenga as a year-round celebration that blooms in February.”
The tourism department has embarked on a program called “Regreening and re-blooming Baguio,” to bring back the old beauty and glory of the nation’s summer capital.
