30th Masskara festival opens today
Today, Bacolod City will declare the 30th Masskara Festival officially open to celebrate 30 Years of Smiles. Simultaneous to this event will also be the opening of cultural presentations by the Department of Education and by the Office of the Senior Citizens and on towards the evening for the opening of kiosks at the traditional festival site which is the Bacolod Public Plaza.
Once again local and foreign tourists will be flocking to the City of Smiles to join the people of Bacolod in the more than two weeks of drinking, eating and merry making. The organizers painstakingly ensure that programs and events are lined up from Day 1 to the final culmination of the festival on the days preceding the 71st Charter Day of the city on October 19.
This year, the festival will kick off with cultural presentations by the Department of Education, celebrations of Senior Citizens week, tourism and art exhibits.
Non-stop entertainments are centered in the public plaza in downtown area where sound systems plays lively music in every street corner around the plaza that compels people to dance to the beat amid the smoke and aroma of the delicious Bacolod chicken inasals.
The place is ensured to be family friendly as videokes are banned in kiosks and law enforcement units maintains round-the-clock orderliness and protection to the public.
Dance concerts and live entertainments are also scheduled. Performers are the likes of G-Force, stars of the giant networks ABS CBN and GMA. To add more excitement, these giant networks have incorporated their programs into the festival such as Starstruck, celebrity search of GMA, while, the search for Masskara Queen 2009 is exclusively sponsored by ABS CBN. Ms Gay Masskara pageant and Night of the Press Club Stars are also some of the programs to look forward.
Drag racing competitions for cars and motorcycles are also slated to be held at the Old Bacolod Airport on October 10 and 16. The competition also attracted participants coming from other places like Iloilo, Capiz and Cebu.
Three days of street dancing competitions will dominate the final weekend of the festival. It will be a spectacle of colorful masks and costumes during the day along Araneta St and the Electric Masskara along Lacson St at night. Electric Masskara this year will depart from the traditional street dancing into the new Ledge Dancing wherein dancers will be seen moving on top of trailers and trucks to give the crowd a clear view and appreciation of the extra-ordinary visual effects adorning the participants.
Kari na sa Bacolod Masskara.