Masskara Festival, 2009, in the sunny Filipino city of Bacolod on the Island of Negros in the Visayan Sea, attended by friendly Negresne, miraming Pinoy from other areas and a few lost foreign objects like me.
That is not me in the photo.
This is a week long festival of masks, dance and festivalising which started about 20 years ago.
It seems back then there'd been a terrible disaster at sea killing 4,375 locals and, well, the sugar industry pretty well ceased to yield a profit...and sugar was king on Negros. So let's lift our spirits and fiesta!
I think it worked. The Festival grows each year, the sugar industry is doing OK, Negros has diversified and bug-eyed tourists like me get to enjoy local hospitality and party on down...as well as age will allow.
I followed the Official Website for details; seems security had been tightened and a crack-down was in place on the unauthorised use of karaoke.
It worked ! Lots of army, police and bag checks. I never felt threatened or unsafe. The event was wonderful and the people watching was of the first order. Lots of people of all ages, lots of youth trying to impress lots of youth just like festivals everywhere; lots of good music and lots of parades.
Thing with Bacolod, IMHO, is that its big enough to have one of everything, big enough to not gawk at an oversized middle-aged whitey like me, yet small enough to feel friendly.
The array of costumes was something; my photos don't do them justice but I hope that I've captured some of the pre-parade and post parade feel
This young woman was not too keen on my taking a pic and, looking at the older women behind, they're not too keen either.
Was it something I said ?
This fella had no such qualms and why would you with work like that to display ?
Great colours as the people from the different "barangays", a local Government area, prepared for their turn.
I won't post pix of the parades; you can get better ones elsewhere. See you in "Back to Bacolod Part II".
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