The 32nd MassKara Festival that opened October 1 is expected to increase tourist influx to Bacolod City throughout the 19-day festival.
Acting Mayor Jude Thaddeus Sayson, in his message during the opening ceremonies last Saturday at the public plaza, said the MassKara Festival has evolved from a simple dance parade to what it is now — world-class.
He thanked festival organizers and the sponsors for bringing the MassKara to a level where it is now known throughout the world.
“We are hoping that in this 19 days of celebration, we could bring Bacolod to the forefront of the tourism industry,” Sayson said.
He explained that Mayor Evelio Leonardia requested him to express the mayor’s greetings to the people of Bacolod on the opening of the festival, and to explain that he could not come because he is in Indonesia to represent Bacolod and the Philippines in the meeting of five ASEAN countries.
Also present at the opening rites were Councilors Homer Bais, Roberto Rojas, El Cid Familiaran, and Al Victor Espino.
The plaza has turned into a virtual MassKara park with the lighting up of the bandstand and the 19 giant mask-lanterns.
The mask-lanterns are entries of the inmates from 19 district jails all over the province to the 1st Priso Mask-Making Competition in partnership with the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology.
As part of the Petronas Day of the festival, which also falls on the opening day, Petronas Energy Philippines president and chief executive officer Carlos Corpuz and senior manager Elbert Munasque distributed gifts to the BJMP jail wardens in recognition of their participation to the festival.
The opening ceremonies were capped by fireworks display, afterwhich, the 1st MassKara dance showdown, in partnership with GMA TV, held an elimination round for 20 competing dance groups. Ten finalists will compete on the grand finals.
Festival director Eli F. J. Tajanlangit said the 2011 MassKara festival is “writing history.”
For the first time in 32 years, he said, the MassKara streetdancing competitions will use live, original music, composed, scored, arranged and performed by our barangay-based musicians and choreographers.
Three MassKara landmarks, designed to be photo opportunity sites for visitors and tourists are also mounted: a MassKara Billboard of Lights, along Araneta-Gonzaga Streets; a lighted Bacolod public plaza bandstand; and the Majica MassKara installation at the Bacolod Government Center which will be unveiled on Oct. 7, he said.
Tajanlangit said three major activities are being added this year: the 1st Priso Mask-Lantern Making Competition, the 1st MassKara Dance Showdown, which is designed to popularize different forms of MassKara dancers, and the 1st MassKara Preview, also in partnership with GMA TV, which is a fashion show of the costumes that will be worn during the streetdancing competitions on Oct. 15 and 16.
This year is also the second time that the MassKara Festival is partnering with the Diocese of Bacolod for the celebration of the Feast of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary on Oct. 9. Prior to that, we are holding Living Rosaries for nine days leading to it, he said.
The MassKara Queen Coronation Night is set Monday, Oct. 17, at the University of Saint La Salle coliseum, and the next day, Oct. 18, we shall hold “Salute to Bacolod!” at the Bacolod Government Center, he said.
The festival will end Oct. 19 with grand awarding rites at the Bacolod Public Plaza, during which we will also hold the grand finals of the 1st MassKara Dance Showdown, he said.
This year’s theme “Celebrating the New Icons of Bacolod” is a way of recognizing the new structures, landmarks, institutions, and personalities that have dramatically transformed Bacolod into what it is now, Tajanlangit added. (PR)
