La Trinidad’s identity through Strawberry Festival

By Jepryll Santos

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – This town’s Strawberry Gestival is fast approaching with the theme ”A Colorful Panaspulan tan Pandadsahan ” -- Ibaloi terms for gathering and merrymaking wherein cultural activities will be part of the event.

It’s a yearly celebration of strawberry products, but this year, the festival is also a  gathering people and visitors having fun together by showcasing their products.  According to Mayor Edna Tabanda, the festival is a mixture of the old and the new where the said festival will cater to traditions of the Benguet and to the trends.

There are also innovations compared to last year because of the sharing of different committees to the various tasks to make the jubilee possible. Some of the added activities to make it more fun are the activities on sports wherein a Mountain Bike Challenge will be added that will be held on La Trinidad Valley on March 29. The involvement of children and youth to indigenous sports will be conducted to introduce the indigenous sports to the new generation such as Sanggol. It will be held on March 13 at the Public Market Grounds.

In line with the sweetness of strawberries, there will also have a search for the sweetes and biggest strawberry fruit that will be held at the Strawberry Lane on March 21. There will also have a renewal of the Vows for the couples who are married for 15, 25, 50, 75 years on March 19 at Municipal Parks. According to Tabanda they want to make it different from the traditional mass wedding to different places.

The main program of the festival will be on March 18 at the Public Market grounds. The street dance competition will be on the same day and the highlight of the festival which is the Mini Float Parade and Drum and Lyre will be on March 20 wherein different Baranggays will be participating. The culminating and awarding program will be on the 31^st of March.

“Come and let’s have fun!” Tabanda added.

For the peace and order during the festival, the Municipal police officers prepared alternate routes during the float and civic parade which are the Longlong Road and Ambiong Road. They will also implement the coding system especially to public vehicles.