Bacolod Masskara Festival at Night: Electric Masskara Parade & Lacson Street Party!

The 30th Masskara Festival in Bacolod City reached its peak during the weekend, from October 16-18, Friday to Sunday, highlighting an elaborate Electric Masskara Parade and street party at Bacolod's main Lacson Street. That's 3 nights of non-stop partying, festivities and overflowing food and drinks at the bars, restaurants and in the streets!

Food kiosks lined up along Lacson Street

A portion of Lacson Street was closed to vehicles and it became one massive party place. Lacson Street from the 6th Street and the Bacolod Lagoon area all the way up to the intersection of B.S. Aquino Drive was closed off. That's about 23 street blocks and yet all of it was swarming and packed with people! It seemed the whole of Bacolod, plus several foreigners, tourists and out-of-towners, were there to join the fun and revelry.

A sea of people in front of Cafe Bob's

There were 3 stages each with a party band playing, set up in different key area along the party street or what some call the "Tourism Strip" which is Lacson Street. Different bands played the whole night, some bands even came from Cebu and Iloilo. The night was filled with "live entertainment", with some bars having their own entertainment such as local DJ's plus those coming from Manila.

Live band at the "Tourism Strip"

A unique part of the Masskara Festival in recent years is the Electric Parade. This year, the Electric Parade opened with a special "unveiling" and launch of the "Majica Masskara" float. It is a collaborative work of 18 Bacolod artists to "Celebrate 30 Years of Smiles" and to showcase how the Masskara Festival has evolved to what it is today. The result is an original and very ilonggo masterpiece mounted on a 30-foot trailer.

The Majica Masskara Float - artistic, original and first of its kind in the Philippines

So much partying and fun happened in the 3 days and 3 nights during the Masskara weekend that it cannot be documented in this blog. There's nothing quite like it and you need to experience it yourself. If you missed this year's Masskara Festival, be sure to join the fun next year!

Bacolod Masskara "masks" on display at Robinsons Place

During the week long festival of Masskara, several "Masskara Masks" were on display in a Masskara exhibit at Robinsons Place.

The Bacolod Masskara Festival - A Celebration of Life!

The annual Masskara Festival held in Bacolod City every October is a celebration which has earned for Bacolod the title “City of Smiles”. The Festival was conceived in 1980 by a group of city officials, Arts Association of Bacolod members and some concerned citizens with full support from the city government and the Department of Tourism Field Office to enliven the usual City Charter Anniversary celebration which, at the time consisted of the routine flag ceremony, employees program and the afternoon civic military parade.


The word “Masskara” was coined by the late AAB president Ely Santiago from the two works “mass” which means “many or a multitude of the people” and the Spanish “kara” meaning “face”. The masks worn by the participants during the parade are always smiling. Masskara thus means a multitude of smiling faces.


Since its inception, the Masskara Festival is held every third weekend of October nearest the Charter Anniversary. It features a Masskara Street Dance competition where people from all walks of life troop to the streets to see colorful masked dancers gyrate to the infectious rhythm of the Latin musical beat in a stunning display of mastery, gaiety, coordination and stamina.

Major activities are the beauty pageant, carnivals, drums and bugle corps competitions, food festivals, sports events, musical concert, agri-trade fair, garden show, to name few.

For a brief history on the Masskara Festival, check this out:
http://bacolodphilippines.blogspot.com/2009/01/masskara-history-and-information.html

Masskara 2009 Schedule of Activities

Bacolod City - Best Place to Live in the Philippines

Bacolod City is the capital and largest highly urbanized mid-size Philippine city of the province of Negros Occidental. Having a total of 499,497 inhabitants as of August 1, 2007, it is the most populous city in the Western Visayas Region. It is notable for its MassKara Festival held during October. Known for being a relatively friendly city, it bears the nickname "City of Smiles" and the "Football City of the Philippines". Bacolod City recently topped a survey by MoneySense Magazine as the "Best Place to Live in the Philippines".

A Brief History
The city's name is derived from the Hiligaynon word bakolod – meaning "stonehill" – since the settlement was founded in 1770 on a stony, hilly area, now the district of Granada.
Due to Muslim raids in 1787, Bacolod was transferred towards the shoreline. The old site was called Da-an Banwa, meaning "old town".

In 1894, by order of Governor General Claveria, through Negros Island Governor Manuel Valdevieso Morquecho, Bacolod was made the capital of the Province of Negros. Bernardino de los Santos became the first gobernadorcillo and Fray Julian Gonzaga the first parish priest.

The success of the revolution in Bacolod was attributed to the low morale of the local Spanish detachment, due to its defeat in Panay and Luzon and to the psychological warfare waged by Generals Aniceto Lacson and Juan Araneta. In 1897, a battle in Bacolod was fought at Matab-ang River. A year later, on November 5, 1898, the Negrense "Revolucionarios," armed with knives, bolos, spears, and rifle-like nipa stems, and pieces of sawali or amakan mounted on carts, captured the convento where Coronel Isidro de Castro y Cisneros, well-armed cazadores and platoons of civil guards, surrendered. Two days later, on the 7th, most of the revolutionary army gathered together to establish a Provisional Junta and to confirm the elections of Aniceto Lacson as president, Juan Araneta as war-delegate, as well as the other officials.

On March 1899, the American forces led by Colonel James G. Smith occupied Bacolod, the revolutionary capital of the Provisional Republic of Negros.

By virtue of Commonwealth Act No. 326, enacted by the National Assembly, Bacolod was made a chartered city on October 19, 1938.

In World War II, Bacolod City was occupied by Japanese forces on May 21, 1942. The Japanese commanding general seized the Mariano Ramos Ancestral House, home of the first appointed Presidente Municipal of Bacolod, which served as the seat of power and a watchtower over city. The city was liberated by joint Filipino and American forces on May 29, 1945. It took time to rebuild Bacolod after liberation. The city's public markets and slaughterhouses were rebuilt during the administration of former mayor Vicente Remitio from 1947 to 1949.

Location
Bacolod City is located on the northwestern coast of the Province of Negros Occidental. It is bounded on the northwest by the town of Talisay; on the east by the City of Silay; on the east and southwest by the town of Murcia; on the southwest by the City of Bago; and in the west by the Guimaras Strait. The global location of Bacolod City is 10 degrees, 40 minutes 40 seconds - north and 122 degrees 54 minutes 25 seconds - east with Bacolod Public Plaza as the benchmark.

Bacolod has a total land area of 16,145 hectares, including straits and bodies of water and the 124 hectare reclamation area; and is composed of 61 barangay (villages) and 639 purok (smaller units composing a village). It is accessible by sea through the ports of Banago; the BREDCO Port in the Reclamation Area, and the port of Pulupandan. By air, it is accessible through the Bacolod Airport, which is approximately three (3) (four is counting from the Lagoon) kilometers away from the center of the city.

Bacolod is ideally located on a level area, slightly sloping as it extends toward the sea with an average slope of 0.9 percent for the city proper and between 3 to 5 percent for the suburbs. The altitude is 32.8 feet or 10.0 meters above sea level with the Bacolod City Public Plaza as the benchmark. Bacolod has two pronounced seasons, wet and dry. The rainy season starts from May to January of the following year with heavy rains occurring during the months of August and September. Dry season starts from the month of February until the last week of April.

Source: Wikipedia

Masskara History and Information

The MassKara Festival is a week-long festival held each year in Bacolod City, the capital of Negros Occidental province in the Philippines every third weekend of October nearest October 19, the city's Charter Anniversary.


Brief History

The festival first began in 1980 during a period of crisis. The province relied on sugar cane as its primary agricultural crop, and the price of sugar was at an all-time low due to the introduction of sugar substitutes like high fructose corn syrup in the United States.It was also a time of tragedy; on April 22 of that year, the inter-island vessel Don Juan carrying many Negrenses, including those belonging to prominent families in Bacolod City, collided with the tanker Tacloban City and sank. An estimated 700 lives were lost in the tragedy.

In the midst of these tragic events, the city's artists, local government and civic groups decided to hold a festival of smiles, because the city at that time was also known as the City of Smiles. They reasoned that a festival was also a good opportunity to pull the residents out of the pervasive gloomy atmosphere. The initial festival was therefore, a declaration by the people of the city that no matter how tough and bad the times were, Bacolod City is going to pull through, survive, and in the end, triumph.

Features

The festival features a street dance competition where people from all walks of life troop to the streets to see colorfully-masked dancers gyrating to the rhythm of Latin musical beats in a display of mastery, gaiety, coordination and stamina. Major activities include the MassKara Queen beauty pageant, carnivals, drum and bugle corps competitions, food festivals, sports events, musical concerts, agriculture-trade fairs, garden shows, and other special events organized ad-hoc every year.


Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MassKara_Festival