Panagbenga’s float parade is 'a 360-degree spectacle’

“It is a 360-degree spectacle,” Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez said of Panagbenga’s float parade, considered one of the highlights of Baguio City’s annual month-long flower festival. It was a 360-degree spectacle indeed, as crowds pooled on Session Road once again to see the floats tower over everyone, giant visions built from flowers, smothered in color, and adorned with characters in costume.

The parade moved slowly and carefully as marching bands and street dancers from the day before did repeat performances every so often, heralding the floats that sailed dreamily down the packed Session Road like slow-moving vessels cruising on a concrete river. Each float took their own theme. A giant red and yellow floral dragon led the parade, as a floral Star Wars universe followed soon after, guarded by a small contingent of Stormtroopers. Another float recreated the sights of Batangas, with a pint-sized, floral recreation of Taal Volcano. Another was a candy-colored island come to life, with a pink dolphin jumping out of yellow and blue waves. A few famous faces were to be found amidst the flora, among them Councilor Shalani Soledad-Romulo, GMA Network stars Dingdong Dantes and Marian Rivera, and TV host/comedian Vice Ganda. The crowd’s adoring screams only added to the experience, creating a heady tune as it mingled with the lyre and drums played by the local children. According to Jimenez, such a sensory feast makes Philippine festivals that much more attractive to tourists: “We have a big advantage in the Philippines because our attractions are not just visual, they are participatory. You feel the energy.”  This energy was certainly felt and also generated by the mass of people who came to see the parade. Baguio City Mayor Mauricio Domogan shared that the number of attendees for this year’s celebration was staggering. “We did not expect that [the] number of people who participated today to be that big... of course, we are happy that it happened that way,” he said without elaborating. “One of the major purposes of the flower festival is to sustain the community spirit of Baguio regardless of our own tribes, to include the people of the regions,” Domogan added, saying that he believes that this purpose has been achieved when he saw that most of the spectators were people from neighboring provinces. At this rate, the festival can only continue to grow bigger, especially since its organizers constantly find ways to improve the program. “Panagbenga is a work in progress,” said festival founder, Atty. Damaso Bangaoet, sharing that they add new events to the traditional ones. This year, for example, they even decided to host a picnic event for Baguio residents to establish that the festival is as much for the locals as it is for tourists. Flower festival executive committee chairman Anthony de Leon also shared that they are looking in to improving the street-dancing and float parade, adding that even if Sunday morning’s spectacle of a float parade was the best they’d seen in years, “there’s always room for improvement.” The Panagbenga Festival started as a small community event, making locals and visitors see and feel the celebrations of a mountain city. Today on its 16th year the festival has become bigger than expected, making the city a hub for tourism and culture during the event.   Since then, Baguio City has been the center of marketing for the entire region making it a display window of the Cordilleras. — KBK, GMA News Disclosure: The author's trip was sponsored by The Manor Hotel at Camp John Hay in Baguio City.