Panagbenga is month-long annual flower festival happening in Baguio, the summer capital of the Philippines. The term is of Malayo-Polynesian origin, meaning “season of blooming”. The feast, held during the month of February, was created as a tribute to the city’s blossoms and as a way to rise up from the devastation of the 1990 Luzon earthquake. The festival takes floats that are dressed with flowers unlike those used in Pasadena’s Rose Parade. The festival also includes street dancing, presented by dancers clad in flower-inspired costumes, that is inspired by the Bendian, an Ibaloi dance of festivity that came from the Cordillera region.
Apart from economic boosts from tourism, the feast also helped the younger generation of indigenous people to rediscover their culture’s old traditions. The indigenous people was first wary with government-led tourism because of the threat that they will intervene or change their communities’ rituals.
- Opening parade
Date: February 1
Venue: Session Road and Melvin Jones Grounds.
The parade signals the start of the Panagbenga. This will be participated by a representative contingent of volunteers. The parade will be succeeded by a short opening program, together with competitions between drum and lyre taking on street dancing contingent among elementary students.
- Trade Fair and Bazaar
Date: first Saturday of February until 1st Sunday of March
Venue: Burnham Park
- Grand festival Parade and Street Dancing Competition
Date: Fourth Saturday of February
Venue: Session Road up to Melvin Jones Grounds
- Float and Marching Band Competitions
Date: 4th Sunday of February
Venue: Session Road up to Melvin Jones Grounds
The parade opens with a shower of rose petals on Session Road while marching bands played lively tunes that sets the mode for the parade. Colourful costumes and lively dance numbers come next accompanied by cleverly- crafted, vibrant and multicoloured floats made entirely from flowers of every kind.
Session Road in Bloom
Date: Fourth Monday of February until 1st Sunday of March
Venue: Session Road
Flower and related stalls together with side walk cafés and food outlets shall be set-up along Session Road that will be closed to vehicles during the occasions. Street and musical entertainers shall be performing in selected areas in Session Road. This activity shall be organized and managed by the tourism sector of the city.
Closing ceremonies
Date: first Sunday of March
Venue: Athletic Bowl
Field demonstrations and other exhibitions shall be featured. A fitting and appropriate closing ceremony program will formally end the feast succeeded by a fireworks display in the evening.
The Panagbenga festival, formerly as the Baguio Flower feast, was formed in 1995 as the brainchild of Attorney Damaso Bangaoet Jr. of the John Hay Poro Point Development Corporation (JPDC) and Victor A. Lim of the Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA). Entries from the annual Camp John Hay art contest gave its official logo: a spray of sunflowers. The festival was set in February to boost tourism as it was considered as a month of inactivity between the busy days of Christmas season and the Holy Week and the summer season.
In 1996, archivist and curator Ike Picpican proposed that the festival be renamed as Panagbenga, a Kankanaey term that means “a season of blossoming, a time for flowering“.
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