Countdown to MassKara Festival starts

BACOLOD CITY, Philippines — Mayor Evelio Leonardia led the switch-on ceremonies of the Billboard of Lights at the public plaza Friday night to officially launch the countdown to the 32nd MassKara Festival from October 1 to 19.

Leonardia said this year's festival, with the theme, "Celebrating the New Icons of Bacolod" will be livelier because of more improvements and innovations.

For one, the streetdancing barangay competition on October 16 will have, for the first time in 32 years, live music using drums, percussions, and various parade instruments, he said.

Gerry Grey, music committee chairman of the MassKara Festival, said the "contagious" live music from large groups of drumbeaters and dancers "will transform Bacolod into the Philippine version of tropical mardi gras."

This year's MassKara celebration will also be a festival of lights, with various light shows in the public plaza and the Bacolod City Government Center (BCGC), said festival director Eli F. J. Tajanlangit.

There will also be a mask-lantern contest for inmates of 18 jail districts in Negros Occidental, he said, adding that the giant mask-lanterns they make will be hung around the plaza as another attraction starting October 1.

On the same date, the plaza bandstand will be illuminated with light shows, while on October 9, Charlie Co and his fellow artists will set up floating artwork at the fountain area of the BCGC, he said.

Tajanlangit said the new attractions in the Bacolod Plaza will reposition the place as the "heart of the festival." These are also expected to attract more foreign and local tourists to the area where they could go there every night and have their pictures taken, he said, adding that shows of lights will be a regular feature nightly. 

Leonardia said the MassKara this year will focus solely on the festival, and no longer in consonance with the city's Charter Day, which was usually held every Oct. 19 in the past but was celebrated last June 18 already.

The mayor said the change of date of the Charter Day was done after documents from the archives of the House of Representatives and those sent by the National Historical Commission showed that the birthday of Bacolod was actually June 18, 1938 and not October 19 as it had been observed before.

The MassKara theme, meanwhile, focuses on the new landmarks, structures, institutions, and even personalities that have dramatically transformed Bacolod in recent years, Tajanlangit said.

Festival highlights include Majica MassKara which opens October 7, Feast of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary on October 9, Electric MassKara on October 14-15, streetdancing competitions on October 15-16, MassKara Queen on October 17, and Salute to Bacolod (Reception for Balik Bacolod Program) on October 18. - THE FREEMAN