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MassKara Festival | |
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Observed by | Bacolod, Philippines |
Type | Cultural |
Date | Fourth Sunday in October |
2023 date | October 22 |
2024 date | October 27 |
2025 date | October 26 |
2026 date | October 25 |
First time | October 19, 1980 |
The MassKara Festival (Hiligaynon: Pista sang MassKara, Filipino: Pista ng MassKara) is an annual festival with highlights held every 4th Sunday of October [1] [2] in Bacolod, Philippines. The festival sites include the Bacolod Public Plaza, the Lacson Tourism Strip and the Bacolod City 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 is always adorned with smiling faces, giving rise to Bacolod being called the "City of Smiles". [3]
The Festival first began in 1980. 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, which resulted in 18 lives lost, and 115 missing.
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. [4] 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. 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.
The 2019 marks the 40th celebration of the festival, aptly called Ruby Masskara. [5]
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.
Electric MassKara is a parade with music, lights and floats.
The street dance competition is divided into two categories; the school division, and the barangay division, the latter is considered as the highlight of the street dancing competition.
List of Barangay Category grand champions:
Year | Champion | 1st Runner-up | 2nd Runner-up | 3rd Runner-up | 4th Runner-up | 5th Runner-up | 6th Runner-up | 7th Runner-up |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2000 | Pahanocoy | |||||||
2001 | Pahanocoy | |||||||
2002 | Pahanocoy | |||||||
2003 | Villamonte | |||||||
2004 | Villamonte | |||||||
2005 | Villamonte | |||||||
2006 | Alijis | |||||||
2007 | Alijis | |||||||
2008 | Mandalagan | |||||||
2009 | Taculing | Mandalagan | 23 | N/A | N/A | |||
2010 | Mandalagan | 17 | Alangilan | N/A | N/A | |||
2011 | Banago | 17 | Tangub | 23 | Alijis | |||
2012 | 17 | Cabug | 6 | 32 | Alijis | |||
2013 | 16 | Cabug | Alijis | 22 | 15 | |||
2014 | Granada | Villamonte | Alijis | N/A | N/A | |||
2015 | Granada | Tangub | Alangilan | N/A | N/A | |||
2016 | Granada | Tangub | Banago | Pahanocoy | Alangilan | |||
2017 | 18 | Punta Taytay | Mandalagan | Tangub | Alijis | |||
2018 | Tangub | 18 | Villamonte | Alijis | Mandalagan | |||
2019 | Estefania | Tangub | 16 | Banago | Bata | |||
2020 | Cancel Due To Covid | |||||||
2021 | Cancel Due To Covid | |||||||
2022 | Granada | Sum-ag | Estefania | 35 | Singcang | Tangub | 31 | Alangilan |
2023 | Granada | Tangub | Sum-ag | |||||
2024 | Granada | Bata | 12 |
Negros Occidental, officially the Province of Negros Occidental, is a province in the Philippines located in the Negros Island Region. Its capital is the city of Bacolod, of which it is geographically situated and grouped under by the Philippine Statistics Authority, but remains politically independent from the provincial government and also one of the two regional centers in Negros Island Region. It occupies the northwestern half of the large island of Negros, and borders Negros Oriental, which comprises the southeastern half. Known as the "Sugarbowl of the Philippines", Negros Occidental produces more than half the nation's sugar output.
Bacolod, officially the City of Bacolod, is a 1st class highly urbanized city in the Negros Island Region in the Philippines. With a total of 600,783 inhabitants as of the 2020 census, it is the most populous city in the Negros Island Region and the second in the entire Visayas after Cebu City.
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San Carlos, officially the City of San Carlos, is a second-class component city in the province of Negros Occidental in the Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 132,650 people.
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Talisay, officially the City of Talisay, is a fourth class component city in the province of Negros Occidental, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 108,909 people.
Aniceto Ledesma Lacson is a Filipino revolutionary general, sugar farmer, and businessman. He is also known as the first and only president of the Negros Republic from 1898 to 1901, and for leading the Negros Revolution alongside Juan Araneta.
Negros Navigation Co., Inc. (NENACO) was one of the oldest domestic shipping companies in the Philippines. It was also one of the largest companies in the passenger transport business in the Philippines. Its main hub was the renowned Pier 2 in Manila North Harbor. NENACO later merged with SuperCat, SuperFerry and Cebu Ferries to form 2GO Travel, the second largest Philippine shipping merger next to the William Lines-Gothong Lines-Aboitiz Shipping merger (WG&A) in 1996. At the same time, the China-Asean Investment Cooperation Fund, a private equity fund wholly owned by the government of the People's Republic of China through an equity infusion, gained a controlling interest in Negros Navigation and subsequently changed the company into the 2GO Group with 2GO Travel, its shipping-company subsidiary.
The Republic of Negros was a short-lived revolutionary entity which had existed on the island of Negros first as a canton of the First Philippine Republic and later as a protectorate of the United States.
Juan Anacleto Araneta y Torres was a Filipino sugar farmer and revolutionary leader during the Negros Revolution.
The Negros Revolution, commemorated and popularly known as the Fifth of November or Negros Day, was a political movement that in 1898 created a government on Negros Island in the Philippines, ending Spanish control of the island and paving the way for a republican government run by the Negrense natives. The newly established Negros Republic lasted for approximately three months. American forces landed on the island unopposed on February 2, 1899, ending the island's independence. Negros was then annexed to the Philippine Islands on 20 April 1901.
The Negrenses are the native cultural group of the Philippine provinces of Negros Occidental, Negros Oriental and Siquijor.
The Panaad sa Negros Festival, also called simply as the Panaad Festival, is a festival held annually during the month of April in Bacolod, the capital of Negros Occidental province in the Philippines. Panaad is the Hiligaynon word for "vow" or "promise" coming from the root-word saad; the festival is a form of thanksgiving to Divine Providence and commemoration of a vow in exchange for a good life. The celebration is held at the Panaad Park, which also houses the Panaad Stadium, and is participated in by the 13 cities and 19 towns of the province. For this reason, the province dubs it the "mother" of all its festivals.
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Metro Bacolod is the 8th-most populous and the 6th-most densely populated metropolitan area out of the 12 metropolitan areas in the Philippines. This metropolitan area as defined by the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) has an estimated population of 840,170 inhabitants as of the 2020 official census by the Philippine Statistics Authority.
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MassKara Festival Queen 2011 was the 31st edition of the MassKara Festival Queen pageant held on October 17, 2011, at the University of St. La Salle Gymnasium in Bacolod City, Philippines. Alexis Danica Drilon, a 4th year BS Biology of University of St. La Salle was crowned by Bacolod City Mayor Evelio "Bing" Leonardia at the end of the event.
MassKara Festival Queen is a local beauty pageant in Bacolod, Negros Occidental, Philippines. Begun in 1981, it is one of the highlights of a week-long celebration called the MassKara Festival.
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The Negros Muscovados are a Filipino professional basketball team based in Negros island. The team currently competes in the Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League (MPBL) as a member of the league's South Division. They are one of two teams based in the Negros Island Region, the other being the Bacolod City of Smiles. Both teams play their home games at La Salle Coliseum in Bacolod.