DAGUPAN CITY – This city, touted as the “bangus (milkfish) capital of the world,” is in a festive mood again as it opens Wednesday the biggest Bangus Festival that lasts until May 4. The festival promises food showcases featuring primarily the bangus, along with entertainment, sports fests, display of arts, crafts and skills, and environment awareness.
Vice Mayor Belen Fernandez, who chairs the festival, said people who will come over for this summer spectacle will get their money’s worth because of the many activities lined up to make their stay worth remembering. As in past years, Fernandez said they expect hundreds of thousands of visitors, even from abroad, to take part in the summer event. She said the daily events are aimed to boost the city’s position as a flourishing hub of trade, commerce and tourism, adding that they want local businesses to benefit from the festival.
Mayor Alipio Fernandez Jr. led the festival’s opening ceremony at the city plaza, followed immediately by a showdown of street dancers in a parade on the city’s main thoroughfares. Even with only two months’ preparation, the vice mayor, who owns the chain of CSI malls in Pangasinan, La Union and Ilocos, said the results are encouraging because the festival’s sponsors are very supportive.
“This shows that the Bangus Festival is really a hit,” she said. She said there will be no more bid for another Guinness record for the world’s longest barbecue, as the city already had it, using bangus, on May 3. Instead, there will be 685 grills to be set up along A.B. Fernandez Avenue on April 30. Here, people from all walks of life can savor and relive the Guinness feat.
The Bangus Festival officially started in 2002 but the Gilon Gilon feature that showcases local bangus harvest was started by Mayor Alipio Fernandez Jr. during the city’s 50th golden anniversary sometime in 1997. This year’s festival also offers opportunities for the neighboring towns and cities to celebrate with the Dagupeños through various competitions ranging from bangus cookfests to music and dances, arts and culture, and sports.
“We’d like to make everyone feel that the Bangus Festival is everybody’s fiesta, as (the bangus) is part of a typical Pinoy dish,” Vice Mayor Fernandez said. Fernandez said this year’s festival has many firsts, namely the Great Dagupan Day Sale, a citywide sale of items with up to 50 percent discounts from April 16 to 30; entertainment to be provided separately by artists of the country’s two giant television networks; and bangus cookfest that has new categories: tandems of parents and children, high school students, and hotels and restaurants.
The festival opens with a big bang through the much awaited and colorful street-dancing competition dubbed as Gilon Gilon ed Baley, exclusively for Dagupeños. The second part of the street dancing, called the Festivals of the North Street Dancing Competition, on April 26 is open to everyone.
This is also the first time that during the Bangusan Street Party (the famous kalutan or bangus grilling) on April 30, seven famous bands like Parokya ni Edgar, Blakdyak with Mocha, Bossing, GMA Kapuso, Bamboo, ABS Team Kapamilya and Sponge-Cola will provide entertainment simultaneously on seven stages. Another first: Dr. Vicky Belo, one of the country’s top cosmetic surgeons and beauty experts, will give a talk today at the city plaza.
Action-filled and exciting sports competitions featuring award-winning athletes are also slated in different fields like bowling, shootfest, taekwondo, billiards, badminton, golf, boxing, mud wrestling, parasailing, beach volleyball, and dragon boat racing. Regular features like the Bangus Rodeo for the search for the biggest and heaviest bangus, and fastest bangus deboner, eater and sorter are other exciting events to watch our for. For art lovers, there’s also the visual arts festival and photo exhibit.
Since the Bangus Festival coincides with the annual Pista’y Dayat (Sea Festival), there will be a day for the river on April 28 and a fluvial parade on May 1. “It’s indeed a family-oriented festival and people will discover that there are many more that Dagupan can offer,” Vice Mayor Fernandez said. -- EV
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