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Sunday, January 16, 2005
Organizers brace for record crowds
By Gingging A. Campaña
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
Sold-out tickets, fully booked hotels and revelers filling the streets sealed off to vehicles, and all dancing contingents ready.
These signs showed that as of lunchtime yesterday, this year’s silver anniversary celebration of the Sinulog festival was on its way to bring, in the organizers’ words, “a two thumbs up sign” for Cebu City.
Forty-six dance contingents, 34 floats, 27 higantes and 15 puppets will perform in the Sinulog grand parade that will start at 9 a.m. today.
With all 11,000 tickets to the grandstand of the Cebu City Sports Center sold out as early as 11 a.m. yesterday, Sinulog Foundation personnel had a hard time pacifying foreign visitors, government officials and the families of out-of-town contingents—many pleaded to buy tickets, even at a higher price.
As of 4 p.m., “tickets sold out” signs went up outside the Sinulog Foundation office, while their phones kept ringing with calls for more.
“For the first time in years, tickets were already sold out. We used to sell tickets even on the day of the grand parade. Now, some are still calling for reservations, only to be told that everything was sold out,” said Sol Eugenio of the Sinulog Foundation Inc.
The foundation printed some 2,100 yellow tickets and sold these at P300 each, 600 white tickets at P500 each, 1,600 pink ones at P400 each and 1,600 green cards at P200 each.
Not for sale are the red and blue cards for the guests and VIPs, and the orange ones for the Sinulog staff.
Sinulog Foundation executive director Ricky Ballesteros said that as much as they wanted to, they could not print more tickets, in view of the sports center’s capacity and the need to ensure safety.
Among the attractions for the 25th anniversary is the new festive look of the center stage at the sports center, where all contingents perform their dance rituals for the judges.
Both sides of the 14-by-45-meter stage were decorated with fresh potted flowers from Baguio City and Cagayan Valley.
Ballesteros said they spent nearly P.5 million to buy 1,250 potted poinsettia and chrysanthemum plants.
Mayor Tomas Osmeña wanted the stage to look like a float, he added.
No sales blitz
Jaime Chua of Landscape Studio, who supervised the decoration, said the red and pink poinsettias were chosen because they complement the color of the Señor Sto. Niño’s vestments.
Ballesteros said that after the Sinulog, visitors to the sports center will expect a more colorful track oval as all potted flowers will be arranged on the side.
Chua and his crew decorated the stage yesterday afternoon while the out-of-town contingents reviewed their dance steps.
About 4 p.m., contingents were only allowed to practice on the track oval as the organizers had to prepare the stage in time for the Search for the Sinulog festival queen last night.
Unlike in the previous Sinulog festival, the foundation did not launch any sales blitz outside the country to promote the yearly event.
This, Ballesteros said, is because they wanted to avoid complaints because the hotels in the city have already run out of rooms as early as December.
“We received complaints from various government officials, international press and other visitors that the hotels have doubled their rates. They were asking if there are Sinulog rates because even the cheapest accommodation was pegged at a five-star hotel rate,” he told Sun.Star.
Exposure
The foundation has reported the complaints to the Department of Tourism, which asked that the complainants keep their receipts.
“So far, so good, everything is set and we hope that the contingents are comfortable in the sports center’s dormitory and in the schools were they are billeted,” Ballesteros said.
The foundation recently had the dormitory repainted, built temporary restrooms and bought 2,000 mattresses for the cots of the contingents.
Blue guards were assigned to ensure security of the delegates and cleaners were hired to maintain the restrooms and the dormitory.
The contingents are allowed free use of the swimming pool and other facilities of the center during their stay.
Starting last Friday, the NBN TV 4 crew conducted interviews with each out-of-town contingent for national TV exposure at the Sinulog Media Center, which was furnished with facilities by Bayan Tel and the Sinulog Foundation.
(January 16, 2005 issue)
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