My First Masskara Festival Event and Second Attempt at a Photo Contest

Tweet

Negros Occidental, Bacolod City-- After so many years of hearing, reading, and seeing colurful photos about it, I finally was able to go to my first Masskara Festival this year. This is also my second attempt at a photo contest.

Onboard Airphil flight to Bacolod at 4:20am, me and travelbuddies actually  almost didn't make it to Bacolod as we orignally booked via PAL-- but that's a whole different story.  Luckily, we got flight via AirPhil instead; an earlier flight than what was orginally planned.

It was a blessing in disguise since it allowed our group plenty of time to rest and explore the city before the Masskara main events kicked off.  

Held annualy in Bacolod City, also known as The City of Smiles, this celebration, aptly called Festival of Smiles, brings to the streets a parade of floats, street dancers, and performers adorned with lavish and extravagant costumes. The festival started in 1980 in the midst of crisis and tragic events that fell upon the Negrenses. At a time when the price of sugar was at an all-time low, and the province, which relied on sugar cane as its primary agricultural crop, was tremendously affected, the "festival of smiles" emerged as proof of Bacolod City's resiliency towards tragedy. 

What makes this festival unique from all other festivals are the mask of smiling faces worn by all participants.

Maskara, being the Tagalog or Filipino word for mask, I used to refer to refer to this event as " maskara festival". I had no idea the correct name of the festival is Masskara and that it actually meant something other than mask worn by the participants. It wasn't after I've been to the festival and decided to blog about it I found out that the word Masskara is a combination of the words mass meaning "many or of considerable size" and kara from the spanish word cara meaning "face." Masskara, therefore, means 'many smiling faces or a multitude of smiling faces. Neat.

We arrived in Bacolod before 6am; I was impressed with airport.  Silay Airport is similar to Iloilo's, but smaller.

I never arranged a transpo pick up from the airport.  Not knowing how to go where you're headed is part of the adventure (just my opinion), so I never really included airport transfer as part of my being OC when it came to travel arrangements.  After talking and negotiating with the drivers waiting outside the airport, we agreed to have them take us to the Bacolod City proper for P350. 

The sunrise in Bacolod is one of the prettiest sunrise I've seen.  With mountains and fields of green and gold on the backdrop, the hues of orange and yellow simply brightened everything that went on its path.

The ride took around 30-40 minutes,  we arrived on a Friday and, as early as 6am, the streets of Bacolod were already prepared for the  upcoming Masskara event.  Stage were set up and colorful "baderitas" decorated the whole city.

We checked in at the Bacolod Pension Plaza.  BCP is right smack in the middle of the Masskara Festival action.  With the public plaza, where masskara dance is being held, being a few steps away from BCP, our hotel is quite close to the market and Araneta Ave where you can find banks, malls, fastfood chains.  BCP is also just walking distance away from SM Bacolod.

Now let's talk about the rooms. The BCP rooms were ok.  Nothing special. Just the standard bed, cable tv, aircon etc. They do have wifi, but the room we checked into only gets a very weak signal.  It didn't really matter though. I went to Bacolod to explore not to surf the net!

I do not consider myself a photographer just because I own a DSLR camera. I also do not have delusions that I take great pictures. If anything, I just love taking photographs and looking at them for memories, or keeping them as souvenirs, and that's it. Taking photographs is just one of the passions and hobbies that I keep. Having said that, the first order of the day for me when I arrived in Bacolod City was to attend to some business.  I got myself a photographers pass  and went to Araneta Ave to claim it.  Photopass is around P500 which will give you access to the special photograhers area during the Masskara streetdance. Php500 includes the ID and a shirt.

We Stayed in Bacolod from October 14 to Oct 17 which was long enough for us to witness the highlights of the entire Festival-- Masskara Festival Street Dance Competition--and for me to take my pictures.

The Schools Category, participated by students from different schools, was held Saturday, Oct 15, and the Barangay Category participated by residents of differrent barangays in Bacolod was held Sunday, Oct 16. 

While some of my companions decided not to leave the comforts of their air-conditioned room during the 2-day Masskara Street Dance Parade and watched the entire thing on TV, (which was pretty lame--if not stupid--after having traveled all the way from Manila to Bacolod), I took my camera to the streets for 2 consecutive days, braved the crowd and the sun's heat, and got my photos. 

This is my second attempt at a photo contest. The first one was during the 16th Philippine International Hot Air Ballon Fiesta where Lakwatsero and I both had an entry. Of course, neither of us won.

I probably took more than a hundred photos and sent three of them to the Masskara Festival photo contest. One of the 3 photos I used for the contest is actually posted on this blog (no need to specity which one. I did not win). It doesn't really matter whether or not I won anything in the photo contest. For me, the experience was enough. Masskara Festival is definitely one of the most colorful events here in the Philippines where hobbyist and budding photographers can get plenty of photo ops to practice or hone their skills. 

Where else can you find hundreds of smiling faces in one day? Probably, nowhere else but in Bacolod--The City of Smiles :) It is the only place you'll see ready smiles before you even lift your camera and utter the words "Say CHEESE!"

See the rest of my Masskara Festival Photos here

Pin It