BENGUET Province seeks to top the number of students who participated in the Bendian dance last year during the celebration of Adivay 2018.
“We are hoping to establish the biggest assembly of Bendian dancers, to surpass the number of participants we had last year,” said Provincial Administrator Attorney Noel Ngolob.
The Bendian dance will be part of the Adivay 2018 celebration in November in accordance with the 118th year founding anniversary of the province.
Last year, some 1,500 students of Benguet National High School join the traditional community dance at Wangal Sports Complex.
Adivay is an Ibaloi term which means coming together while the Bendian or bindiyan is a community circle dance.
Benguet Governor CrescencioPacalso said for this year’s celebration, they have requested participants to be in their native garb to showcase the color of Benguet.
“We will encourage the wearing of our native attire in all the activities in Adivay to attract the tourist,” said Pacalso.
This year several activities have been lined up for the Adivay Festival such as the agri-tourism fair featuring local products, and the culture of the province as main attraction.
Ngolob said the steering committee already received the proposed budget and activities of all the working committees.
“We have already conducted hearing on these proposals. There are already some activities and budgets ready for transmittal for the executive committee composed of the governor, vice-governor and the board members who will act on the proposals,” Ngolob said.
The province has allocated P5 million for the close to one-month celebration which tentatively starts in the first week of November.
“We are still discussing the theme. We welcome proposals to be finalized by the committee. Expect that by the third week of September, we have already finalized all the budget and the activities which will be submitted to the committee,” he added.
The province has also received proposals of sister hood signing and visit from Vietnam, while a Rotary Club from Japan will be delivering utensils for the different schools and day care centers of the province.
Prior to the celebration, the governor added they target to finish the rehabilitation of roads destroyed by the onslaught continuous rains in the past months and establish main flow of traffic before the festival.