Panagbenga Festival : The Baguio Flower Festival

The Panagbenga Festival is held yearly during the month of February. The celebrations are held for over a month and peak periods are the weekends. The Panagbenga Festival showcases the many floral floats and native dances. The fragrant smells that could be presently teasing olfactory senses are probably less from the now-dried flowers from Valentine's Day than air floating all the way from Baguio City. At this time of year, the City of Pines is almost surely in flower fury over Panagbenga festival, the city's biggest festival.

Panagbenga is a kankanaey term for "a season of blooming." It is also known as the Baguio Flower Festival, a homage to the beautiful flowers the city is famous for as well as a celebration of Baguio's re-establishment. Since February 1995, it has been held to help Baguio forget the 1990 earthquake that distressed much of the city.

Panagbenga festival will have spectators enjoying a multiple floral and float parades over two days. The Baguio Flower Festival Association (BFFA) will have a street dancing parade and band exhibition. The Baguio Flower Festival Foundation (BFFF), meanwhile, will hold a parade. So where should spectators be stationed to not miss any of the float and floral parades? Session Road and Burnham Park. A search for the Mr. and Ms. Baguio Flower Festival, FM Panagbenga Pop Fiesta, Skateboard competition and Dolls of Japan exhibit were added to the BFFA calendar. The festival is supported by constituents of La Trinidad, La Union, Pangasinan, Marinduque and Masbate.

Often a Cañao is an undertaken to kick-off & celebrate the occasion. A Cañao is a dance that also is regularly performed at special occasions such as fiestas. In this two-person dance, the men hang blankets usually woven with an indigenous pattern or design-over each shoulder. The woman wraps a single similar blanket around her. The man leads her and dances in a circle with a hop-skip tempo to the beat of sticks and gongs. The dance must continue until the viewers decide to honor the dancers twice with a shout of "Ooo wag, hoy! hoy!" Once this has happened, the dancers can stop. It is an honor to be invited to join the dance, and elders and other respected members of the community are expected to join in at every occasion.

This year, owing to the fact that it is Baguio's Centennial year, the festival drew a record number of people, coming from as far away as Surigao, Mindanao to Vallejo, California (the sister city of Baguio). News reports intially tagged the number of expected guests at 50,000 but it reached 300,000 or more, based on official police estimates. No small wonder that this year's Panagbenga theme is "Our Festival, Yours Too."

The parades were lovely, full of vibrant colored costumes and props that looked wonderful against the clear china blue sky. The streetdancers
were energetic, clad in glittery costumes or body paint, carrying giant paper leaves and sunflowers. Some were dressed in bahags, the native attire, and danced to a chorus of gongs. Even some policemen, who dutifully marshalled the crowd, were wearing bahags along with their police uniform.

Right after the street and float parades, Session road shall be cleared for the “Session Road in Bloom,” from March 2-March 8 where floral-themed accessories are sold and flower-inspired activities done within the area. Promenaders and café-goers shall also be allowed in the area.

On March 7, Baguio Pony Boys and fun riders shall have their day of exhibition rides, games and activities on horseback. Known as “Gymkhana,” the event is reminiscent of oldenBaguio days when horse afficionados would come together and prove their mettle on horse games. Horses then were the primary mode of transportation to and from the agricultural and mining areas.

Closing ceremonies shall be on March 8, de Leon said.

The extra week Innovations to the activities abound, de Leon added, including string quartet and ballet performances during the fluvial parade, usually done at the Burnham Park Lake. Additional activities are being awaited.

Activities are bigger due to the flower festival’s joint celebration with the centenary, de Leon clarified.

As to sponsored events, de Leon said that there shall be no sponsor dominance, nor commercialization for the festival.

Congressman Domogan also emphasized that the flower festival is meant to be a thanksgiving event, for the promotion of unity and to sustain the tourism industry in the city.

The congressman downplayed expectations of a house bill approval, a move to regulate festivals in the country due to the presently-felt economic crisis.

Download the Baguio Flower Festival - Panagbenga 2009 Schedule of Events