Big firms pledge support
By
Aileen P. Refuerzo and Pamela Mariz Geminiano
BAGUIO CITY – A
city-wide guided tour of art hubs dubbed “Creative Crawl Tour” will spice up
the 1st Baguio Creative Festival (“ENTAcool!”) slated on Nov. 10-18 in various
venues.
City Tourism
Operations Officer Aloysius Mapalo said the Creative Crawl tour to be headed by
the Dept. of Tourism Cordillera will run throughout the festival and will
feature a daily excursion to the various creative spaces which were grouped
into five “circuits.”
Circuit 1
covers the BenCab Museum which features artworks exhibit and gallery by
national artist Benedicto Cabrera and indigenous northern highland artifacts
exhibits; Asin Woodcarvers Village (woodcarving and weaving and bamboo crafts);
Dominican Hill Heritage Site (venue of the “Kulay ng Siglo” Visual and Media
Arts Gallery and Workshop; and the Baguio City Museum;
Circuit 2:
Tam-awan Village (An art and cultural village featuring Cordilleran folk art
and cuisine, uniquely local solar and sand painting; Easter Weaving (Home of
quality hand-woven products now with a wide array of other local handicrafts);
Narda’s Weaving and Handicrafts (World-renowned hand-woven arts and crafts);
and UP Museo Kordilyera (Ethnographic exhibits and gallery);
Circuit 3: Villa Romana (Venue of Tinatik Art Exhibits and Workshop); Hanan’chi
Creations (An independent art space with installations and crafts made of metal
and wood); Philippine Treasures (Locally designed and customized handicrafts
and home decors); and OTOP Philippines Hub (Buyers’ showcase and gallery for
local crafts products like weaving, silvercrafts and woodcarving);
Circuit 4:
Bell House, Camp John Hay (Photo and Art Gallery Exhibition by BenCab in
conjunction with the Forest Bathing project of DOTCAR); Pilak Silver Crafts
(Locally designed and crafted sterling silver crafts and accessories);
Aguinaldo Museum Park (Bamboo installations by Edgar Banasan); Baguio Media
Newseum (Interactive edutainment center that focuses on media methods and
techniques, emphasis on print, radio, television and the power of the new
media; and Creative Brewery at St. Louis University (Metal Art Studio and
Gallery by Archt. Dulthe Carlo Munar); and
Circuit 5:
Mt. Cloud Bookshop (An independent bookshop and gallery); Vocas (Victor Oteyza
Community Art Space) (A vegetarian café featuring organic cuisines and mini art
gallery); Ili Likha Artist Village (An art hub conceptualized by Kidlat
Tahimik, designed as a treehouse of various art experiences: gastronomy,
independent cinema, art appreciation); Pasakalye Art Space; and Latag @ Malcolm
Square (A fair featuring independent local handcraftsmen and street busking and
performances).
Open to
tourists and residents, the activity aims to drumbeat the city’s various art
hubs as tourist attractions.
The Creative
Crawl Map used in the tour will also serve as an avenue to build a “Creative
Baguio” image and sustain it beyond the festival along with an active online
portal among which the official Creative Baguio website www.creativebaguio.com
.
The DOT-CAR
said all five Creative Crawls will include transportation and tour guides at a
package promo cost of P999 plus a raffle entry if availing of all the crawls
although the crawls can be availed of separately.
Each circuit
tour lasts for four hours. Assembly time for circuits 1 and 2 will be at
7:30 a.m. while circuits 3-5 will be at 12:30 p.m.
Daily raffle
winners will be given special prizes, which can be claimed at the Latag Fair in
Malcolm Square. Winners will be announced daily from Nov 14 to 18, 2018.
Major private
corporations are throwing their all-out support to the Summer Capital's newest
festival, "EntaCool," which is meant to highlight the city's creative
populace from the grassroots.
Energy sector
giant Petron Corp., for one, is getting reinforcement from its five-million
customer base.
“Petron
Corporation is assuring you that you have our support. In fact, in line with
the city's objective, we also want to revive the city's old charm,” Jessamyn
Clavio, Petron Corp.'s loyalty sales manager, told Baguio media in a recent
conference here. “If you are familiar with the Petron Value Card, we have five
million membership base and we will promote the festival to them.”
Last week,
Baguio launched "EntaCool," a festival that the DOT in Cordillera
hopes to match the Philippine Summer Capital's “Panagbenga” or Flower Festival
in drawing in tourists.
Coined from
the indigenous word “entaku” (meaning let's go) and cool referring to the cool
weather in the city, will be a week-long festival held on Nov. 10-18 each year.
The festival
aims to promote Baguio as a creative city, featuring art and cultural exhibits,
cultural shows, live portrait sketching sessions, local crafts, talks on culture
and the arts, and art demonstrations by renowned local artists.
The Hotel and
Restaurant Association of Baguio (HRAB) will also give perks and discounts to tourists, who will
visit creative sites in the city during the festival.
The Private
Infra Development Corp. (PIDC), a subsidiary of food and beverage giant San
Miguel Corp., is also set to put up ads along the highway leading to Baguio,
announcing to travelers that Baguio has remained a safe and fun haven for
tourists.
PIDC operates
the Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway (TPLEX), which has made traveling to
the northern Philippines a breeze for metropolitans.
“We are
planning to install metal billboards promoting Baguio as a creative city,” Tony
Reyes, a representative of PDIC, said at the press conference.
Davies Paints
Philippines, Inc. and Pacific Paint (Boysen) Philippines are also painting the
town red for the creative arts festival.
Specifically,
Davies will sponsor murals on the roads of Baguio City, with the blessing of
the DOT, said Jo Ann Viriña, a representative of the paint company.
Other
companies that have committed to help promote the new festival are: Victory
Liner, Northern Cement, Manila North Tollways Corp., “BEEP”, Max’s Restaurant,
and Baguio-based Porta Vaga Mall. The Camp John Hay Development Corp. is also
going to cooperate.
In
November 2017, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO) placed Baguio in its Creative Cities Network, for the
city's distinguished crafts and folk art.
This made
Baguio earn the tag “Creative City,” along with 64 other cities from 44
countries worldwide.
The city
government takes the tag as an affirmation of Baguio's identity as a city of
creative people.
Baguio City
remains one the country's top tourist destinations.
The
Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) in Cordillera said Baguio received a
total of 1.5 million tourists in 2017, or 77 percent of the entire Cordillera
region’s total tourist arrival of 1.96 million.
With its
inclusion on the list of UNESCO creative cities network, the city hopes to draw
more tourists, especially with the possible inclusion of “EntaCool” in the list
of festivals of the UNESCO.
Councilor
Elmer Datuin, chairman of Baguio City Council's committee on tourism, said that
the city legislative body has approved the institutionalization of “EntaCool”
as a regular activity of the City of Pines. – With a report from PNA
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