Thursday, October 04, 2007 So: Festival of lost intent By Michelle P. So Caught in the Net
A festival connotes fun, revelry and preparation. It brings together families, friends, entertainment people, midgets and politicians. It sends shivers down a hog’s spine.
Its preparation brings out the best and worst of the organizers and their critics. It’s when money matters.
I bring up the matter of festival because of news reports in Sun.Star Bacolod and Sun.Star Iloilo about the MassKara and Dinagyang, the festivals that keep Bacolod City abuzz every October and Iloilo in January. The two cities take pride in their festivals as the best there is in the country, just like Cebu about Sinulog and Baguio about Penagbenga. No matter, hogs hate festivals.
In Bacolod, lamentations about the MassKara being made a venue for political grandstanding and losing its purpose are being aired. But aren’t festivals produced by the local government to show the beneficence of public officials by remembering an occasion with pomp that will have people thanking them? A public celebration unveils motives.
The MassKara, says one of its founders, has made “kingmakers” out of politicians who “become powerful by pretending to be patrons of MassKara.”
The solemnity of the occasion is lost in the revelry and political grandstanding, the founder says. The substance of MassKara is lost.
Politicians sponsor contingents to carry their names. It has become an “unimaginable commerce” and is no longer an artistic expression.
The festival is so-called to provide an occasion for people to don masks and take relief from their sorrow at having lost hundreds of Negrenses who drowned in the mv Don Juan sea mishap and at having been mired in famine during the sugar crisis in 1979. For the Negrenses who know the purpose behind the MassKara celebration, they see that it is slowly losing its essence to revelry and political primping.
This is one pitfall of a festival that gets bigger and grander every year. It succumbs to commercialism and to squabbles over intent and money.
Cebu’s Sinulog had gone through a point when its religious aspect was sidelined by the street parade and revelry. Its organizers had to bring back the solemnity of the occasion and had to set aside a day of prayer. That’s why today, the solemn procession precedes the Sinulog grand parade and it gives the pigs a day’s reprieve.
In Iloilo, tribal contingents are vying for subsidies from the Iloilo Dinagyang Foundation Inc. (Idfi). Anyone who has organized a contingent knows the vital role of logistics in getting people moving or stalling.
To generate interest and participation in the festival, organizers hold contests among the contingents. This is where corporate sponsors and politicians play a role. The winning contingents bring prestige to their sponsors and benefactors.
In many big public festivals, a foundation is usually behind their continuance and management. If the government were to handle it alone, then the festival would not last beyond the end of the term of the current public leaders. Demands for a public accounting always haunt organizers after the festival is over.
Take the case of the Mantawi Festival of Mandaue City. Initiated by the administration of Thadeo Ouano, it has become a moveable festival or has been put on hold until further notice. With the Ouanos out in power, the festival has lost its place in the calendar. Like cancelled flights, the Mantawi Festival is TBA: to be announced.
Many other festivals are similarly situated but the hogs don’t care.
