DINAGYANG CHAMPION. Tribu Ilonganon, the champion of the 2019 Dagyang Tribes competition of the Iloilo Dinagyang Festival performs at the Yokohama Plant in Pampanga as part of the Dinagyang Festival Philippine tour on Wednesday (Feb. 27, 2019). (Photo courtesy of Michael Ng)
ILOILO CITY -- Iloilo’s Dinagyang Festival started its first Philippine tour with a performance at the Yokohama Plant in Clark, Pampanga on Wednesday.
Iloilo Dinagyang Foundation, Inc. (IDFI) Board of Trustee and head of the delegation Michael Ng, in a phone interview on Thursday, said it’s about time for the festival to hold a Philippine tour for Filipinos to be aware of what the Dinagyang fest is all about.
He cited that for the past years, the festival had performed abroad.
“This is part of the foundation’s corporate social responsibility to promote Iloilo City. A successful festival such as our Dinagyang is just one of the indicators that the place is safe and peaceful,” he said.
Through this, the foundation, also hoped to encourage investors to come to Iloilo City. The festival in itself is a result of a successful public-private partnership.
He added that in choosing the destinations of the festival, they consider if the places also have best practices that are applicable to Iloilo.
“While we expose our city, we also learn about their best practices that we can adopt back in Iloilo,” he said.
Apart from the private performance of the festival’s Dagyang Tribe champion for 2019 at the Yokohama Plant, the selected performers from Tribu Ilonganon will also perform at the Robinsons Angeles in coordination with the Department of Tourism in Central Luzon under Regional Director Carolina Uy Thursday afternoon.
“They requested that we perform here,” Ng said as he also acknowledged the support of Tourism Western Visayas Regional Director Helen Catalbas for helping in the coordination.
Thereafter they will proceed to SM City in San Fernando, Pampanga for another performance.
On March 1, the delegation will proceed to Baguio City where they will have street dance and performance in the afternoon at SM Baguio.
They will be joining the Panagbenga Festival Grand Street Parade on March 2 from the Panagbenga Park to Session Road, Magsaysay to Maharlika towards the Harrison Road up to the Baguio Athletic Bowl.
Ng said the foundation has already a list of possible venues for the 2019 tour to include the cultural presentation in the May 11-12 Manggahan Festival of Guimaras, Cebu SM City Seaside on July 26; Bohol’s Sandugo Festival on July 27; August 12-18 Kadayawan Festival of Davao; October 19 Buglasan Festival of Dumaguete City; October 27 Masskara Festival; and the November 5 Pintaflores Festival of San Carlos City in Negros Occidental.
Ng added the top three winners to include Tribu Paghidaet and Tribu Dagatnon will be rotated so they will also have their chance to perform in the series of tours.
The festival has also been able to perform in South Korea, New Zealand, Guam, United States of America, Singapore and Japan, among others. (PNA)
