THE 2018 MassKara Festival Queen will be crowned tonight at the SMX Convention Center, Bacolod City.

Festival director Eli Francis Tajanlangit said on Thursday, October 18, the pageant is going to be a recalibration of what the MassKara Queen has become.

“We are going back to the original vision of the first organizers of the pageant, which means that this pageant will look for Festival Queen, not a search like Miss Binibining Pilipinas or Miss Universe,” he said.

Tajanlangit explained this is going to be a MassKara Festival Queen who can join the crowds and who be part of the festival.

He said half of the pageant night, which will start at 7 p.m., the candidates will be wearing their festival costumes because the new queen will be crowned with her festival costume on.

In previous years, candidates wore other costumes other than the festival gown during coronation night.

Masskara Festival Queen candidates for 2018 are Claire Therese Porras, Heryn Wilcel Gatilao, Shane Pia, Julia Bennett Divinagracia, Edelyn Roncales, Jacqueline Almogen, Angelica Amayna, Claudette del Castillo, Chrisselle Rose Lambating, and Ella Mercado.

Tajanlangit said the 2018 MassKara Festival Queen will also have a touch of history as part of the celebration of the city’s 80th year anniversary.

“It will open with a rigodon de honor-inspired dance as a recollection of the golden age of Bacolod which includes 1938, the year the city was born,” he said.

He added the pageant’s tickets will be distributed for free because they want the pageant to be accessible to everybody.

Tajanlangit noted that in case there are opportunists who will sell tickets, they should report it to the Silver MassKara Festival Organization.

The pageant will run for two hours which will be hosted by Sedfrey Cabaluna with the MassKara Queen 2010.

This year’s pageant was organized by OMS led by Rene Jun Ogapong and Danjan Plazo in partnership with the Silver MassKara Festival Organization.

The MassKara Festival Queen pageant is one of the highlights of the 39th MassKara Festival from October 8 to 28. (MAP)