GHOST TOWN. Passersby take a photo of the mural that was supposed to serve as the backdrop of the Ipitik Festival on March 28 until April 5 at the Rose Garden of the Burnham Park. The event was canceled due to the threat of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19). (PNA photo by Pigeon Lobien)
BAGUIO CITY – The rice wine festival or Ipitik which is practically an umbrella of nine other arts and culture events during the culminating week of the Panagbenga or the Baguio Flower Festival is also canceled.
“It is with regret and prudence that we in the Council for Baguio Creative City announce that the Ipitik Festival 2020, scheduled to be held on March 28-April 5 this year, is canceled, as an act of shared solidarity in combating (the) increasingly rising cases of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) incidence in the country," event organizer Ferdinand Balanag said on Wednesday in a media statement.
There has no reported case of Covid-19 here or in its neighboring provinces but that did not stop the organizers to cancel the week-long event, saying “while no one has been afflicted among our constituents, as yet, it is best that it remains that way.”
“Indeed, we have worked hard to ready up for the Ipitik Festival, excited to showcase once more the many innovative ways of celebrating culture and the arts in our city and region. It would have opened up tremendous opportunities for our artists, artisans and creative workers for critical engagements that are hoped to develop the creative economy and flourish it to competitive standards, not just locally but internationally as well," Balanag said.
"But amid the deadly threat of the respiratory disease, we must prioritize public health and welfare and undertake pro-active measures to keep our residents and visitors out of harm’s way. Truly, an ounce of prevention is best done in times like now," he added.
By canceling the event, Balanag called it as “a small measure of sacrifice, but it signifies worthy investments for future cultural endeavors.”
“We take this as our humble contribution to foster better health and sanitation practices in these dire times," he said.
The third staging of the Ipitik will be at the Rose Garden of the Burnham Park anew and nine years after its most recent staging in 2011.
It was first staged in 2005, incidentally right after Baguio’s placement under a state of medical emergency due to the meningococcemia.
But Balanag is hopeful that Ipitik may still be staged in the future, saying: “Ipitik may be gone for now, but it will definitely take cultural center stage at the most opportune time.”
The festivity was supposed to also have the third pinikpikan cooking contest where thousands of people will be fed with the traditional Cordilleran boiled chicken.
Pinikpikan is the Cordillera’s answer to “tinola” but the chicken is burnt before it is boiled.
During the 2011 staging of the Ipitik, more than 2,500 persons partook of the cooked pinikpikan.
On Monday, Mayor Benjamin Magalong after meeting with the inter-agency task force led by the Department of Health- Cordillera and the City Health Office announced the cancelation of the two major parades of the 25th edition of the Panagbenga. (PNA)
