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History: Masskara Festival

The MassKara Festival is an annual festival held in Bacolod City, Philippines every October. It began in 1980 during an economic crisis as a "festival of smiles" to lift spirits. Participants wear colorful masks, which began as indigenous designs and now include global influences. Events include street dancing competitions, beauty pageants, concerts, and more to celebrate Bacolod's culture and tourism. The festival has grown to be a major event attracting many visitors each year.

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1K views5 pages

History: Masskara Festival

The MassKara Festival is an annual festival held in Bacolod City, Philippines every October. It began in 1980 during an economic crisis as a "festival of smiles" to lift spirits. Participants wear colorful masks, which began as indigenous designs and now include global influences. Events include street dancing competitions, beauty pageants, concerts, and more to celebrate Bacolod's culture and tourism. The festival has grown to be a major event attracting many visitors each year.

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NORMA SABIO
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MASSKARA FESTIVAL

The MassKara Festival (Hiligaynon: Pista sang MassKara, Filipino: Pista ng MassKara) is an


annual festival with highlights held every fourth Sunday of October[1] in Bacolod, Philippines. The
most recent festival was held October 8-28, 2018. The festival sites include the Bacolod Public
Plaza, the Lacson Tourism Strip and the Bacolod Government Center.

The word "Masskara" is a portmanteau, coined by the late artist Ely Santiago from mass (a multitude
of people), and the Spanish word cara (face), thus forming MassKara (a multitude of faces). The
word is also a pun on maskara, Filipino for "mask" (itself from Spanish máscara), since it is a
prominent feature of the festival and are always adorned with smiling faces, giving rise to Bacolod
being called the "City of Smiles".

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. This was the first MassKara
Festival and a time of tragedy; on April 22 of that year, the inter-island vessel MV Don Juan carrying
many Negrenses, including those belonging to prominent families in Bacolod City, collided with the
tanker Tacloban City and sank in Tablas Strait off Mindoro while en route from Manila to Bacolod. An
estimated 750 lives were lost in the tragedy.
In the midst of these events, the local government then headed by the late Mayor Jose "Digoy"
Montalvo appropriated a seed fund and enjoined the city's artistic community, civic and business
groups to hold a "festival of smiles", to live up to the City's moniker 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 brought by the Don Juan Tragedy.[2] The initial festival was held during the City's Charter
Day celebration on October 19, 1980 and was steered by an organizing committee created by City
Hall which was headed by the late councilor Romeo Geocadin and then city tourism officer Evelio
Leonardia. It was a declaration by the people of the city that no matter how tough and bad the times
were, Bacolod City was going to pull through, survive, and in the end, triumph.
The festival has evolved into one of the major annual tourism attractions of the Philippines over the
next four decades. Held in typical Oktoberfest and Mardi Gras fashion, the MassKara Festival
served as a catalyst for far-reaching growth and development of the city's tourism, hospitality,
culinary, crafts and souvenirs and services sectors. In later years, the Electric Masskara was added
as another attraction of the Festival. For several nights leading to the highlight weekend, tribes of
MassKara dancers garbed in colorful neon and LED lights on illuminated floats make their way up
and down the Lacson Strip, a one kilometer stretch of merrymaking dotted with band stages,
souvenir stands, exotic car displays and roadside bars and food set-ups put out by restaurant and
hotels along the strip. It is said that beer consumption during the festival is so high that at one time
during the first few stagings of the festival, it bled dry the Mandaue brewery of San Miguel
Corporation on nearby Cebu island. The company eventually built its Bacolod brewery to serve the
city and Negros Island.
Masks
The mask motif of the festival has changed from masks influenced by native Filipinos to those
influenced by the Carnival of Venice and the Rio Carnival. Earlier masks were hand-painted and
adorned with feathers, flowers and native beads, while contemporary masks feature plastic beads
and sequins.

Events
The festival features a street dance competition where people from all walks of life troop to the
streets to see 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, bugle corps competitions, food festivals, sports events, musical concerts,
agriculture-trade fairs, garden shows, and other special events organized every year.
MASSKARA

FESTIVAL

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