Masskara Festival 2012

Image taken from p-3.ph

I will feature here the the Masskara Festival that is held every October. This year marks the 32nd anniversary of the festival. This festival is dubbed also as a Festival of Smiles, for Bacolod City is also known as The City of Smiles.

Masskara Festival started in 1980, the time when the Negrenses experienced crisis due to the low prices of sugar. Negros province wholly rely on sugar cane as its primary agricultural product. Aside from the crisis, the whole Province of Negros Occidental grieved because of a shipping disaster that involved the inter-island vessel Don Juan which collided with a tanker and sank that lost an estimated 700 lives including those belonging to prominent families in Bacolod City.

The main features of the festival is the street dance competition participated by various government and non-government organizations, public and private schools and all barangays of the city. The street dance is witnessed by hundreds and thousands of people who flock to the streets to see colorfully-masked dancers swaying and gyrating to the beats of rhythmic Latin music. The whole festivity is brightened-up with the Masskara Queen beauty pageant, drums and bugle corps competitions, food festivals, carnivals, musical concerts performed by local and national band groups, agriculture-trade fair and garden shows to name a few. The activity starts on the 1st day of October and lasts until the 19th of the same month. The public plaza was once considered as the biggest beer garden in the world wherein kiosks and food stalls serve native foods and delicacies, especially the "Inasal", and beers. The nights are filled with loud music and merry-makers who enjoy the once-in-a-year event. The activity is regularly visited by tourists from different corners of the world.