Sun.Star: MassKara opens in Bacolod

BACOLOD CITY - The 28th MassKara Festival in Bacolod officially opened Monday night. But according to one of its founders, it has lost its “taste". This was how George Macainan described the present celebration of MassKara Festival in Bacolod. Macainan, a school teacher, writer and actor, is one of those who founded the MassKara Festival with the late Ely Santiago of the Negros Press Club (NPC). In an exclusive interview with Sun.Star-Bacolod, Macainan said he was disheartened by how people manage the MassKara Festival today. He stressed that today’s MassKara has become a “Kingmaker" instead, adding: “It started like a solemn birthday celebration. Soon, hordes of gate crushers came and the solemnity was turned into commerce." “Kingmaker, because all politicians become powerful by pretending to be patrons of MassKara," Macainan explained. Gate crushers because seldom do participants understand the meaning of the celebration, he added. For the past three years, the Eli Tajanlangit-led Silver MassKara Foundation Inc. (SMFI) manages the festival. SMFI relies on corporate sponsors with rates ranging from hundreds of thousands to millions of pesos. The City Government of Bacolod also shares another million as counterpart for the street dancing participants in the school and barangay categories. Every end of the festival, SMFI does an accounting report of transactions. But Macainan said, “Do not brag about your accounting because I myself had never seen one ever since this MassKara became what it is now. People must have corrupted even a celebration like this." “Politicians spent millions for choreographers and costume makers in the barangays because it is an added ‘pogi’ point," he added. “What this MassKara had become is an unimaginable ‘commerce’ rather than artistic expression. It has even become political where all those ‘kings and queens’ give dole outs to barangays than developing artistic talents in mask-making, dancing, choreography, team playing, among others," he said. Macainan vividly recalled that back in the late 70s and 1980s, when Masskara was conceived by the Art Association of Bacolod (AAB), the intention was to creatively organize a street dance parade thus getting away from a “meaningless" civic-military parade. Also, Macainan said MassKara was meant to hide the tears and sorrows of how Negros suffered from the sugar crisis and the “Don Juan" sea mishap killing hundreds of Negrenses. Macainan said Jess Aiko was then AAP president but it was Ely Santiago who coined the word “MassKara," to set a time in the Negrenses’ lives when they can “let out" in street dancing what they were emotionally carrying that time. “Participants then were mostly schools, Latin music in vogue was used, each group carried their own cassette and it was so ‘crude’ not everybody could hear the music but the simplicity and naiveté brought with it unexplained joy," Macainan said. Macainan stressed, “If there is one joy MassKara had offered, it’s because almost all cities in the entire Philippines followed the idea of MassKara street dancing. In varied forms and styles, people around the Philippines are dancing in the streets now and it’s so beautiful," he added. Leonardia, in the opening ceremony, focused on reviving the Manokan Country. He stressed his administration’s efforts to revive the Manokan Country which has placed Bacolod in the tourism and food map in the country. To the stall owners, the mayor urged them to do their share in “restoring its former glory." The revival of the Manokan Country is also in line with this year’s festival theme, Icons of Bacolod. The mayor’s declaration at the SM MassKara Festival Village was highlighted with fireworks and a dramatic turn of the weather which was marked with heavy downpour in the morning and darkened skies all throughout the day. A San Miguel Night, featuring live bands, was later held in the Manokan and plaza stages. The opening day started with an early morning parade of the Department of Education participated in by dancers from Barangay 23, The parade also signaled the opening of the Annual Division Athletic and Cultural Meet of the Department of Education. In the evening, the Negros Occidental Private Schools Sports, Cultural and Educational Association organized a Battle of the Bands, which had 10 schools participating. With the opening of the 28th MassKara, the three festival sites in the Bacolod public plaza, the SM-MassKara Village and SM City are now operating. The traditional food and beer kiosks are located in the plaza and the SM MassKara Village. - Sun.Star