SHOPAHOLIC Christmas Fashion and Food Bazaar is coming to Tacloban City on December 2 to 8 at Robinsons North in Abucay, featuring the best of Eastern Visayas’s homegrown businesses.
Apple Anido Alagon, co-organizer of the event, said they want to share their advocacy to help promote local startups and artisans “to bring the festivities and the renewed spirit of the people this holiday season.”
“As shopaholic ourselves, we carefully selected the exhibitors for the bazaar to ensure everyone’s taste for something different is met and a wide variety of options are available to entice a bigger and eager market,” said Alagon of the Happy Lane Events.
Alagon added they are looking for six additional enterprises to complete the lineup.
“We hope to tap new businesses in the city and in the region,” said Alagon, who is also the president of Rotary Club of Ormoc Bay and owner of JO’s Milagrina restaurant.
According to Alagon, one of their weekend highlights will be a fashion show from four different local brands on December 8.
These local brands are Lexi and Zabi, twinning outfits of mom and kids or dad and kids; Lemon Drops, trendy apparel; Sweet Chic Boutique; trendy apparel; and Colors and Shadows, handpainted bayongciagas as accessories.
Coke Young Go, co-organizer and proprietress of Tacloban stylish restaurant Chew Love, added that the event is about turning their passion into advocacy and business.
“We’re promoting young and vibrant entrepreneurs, local artisans, and food industry on a very merry month,” said Go.
Go, along with their partners April Cordero of VIP Salon and Spa and Jenny Ann Alvez of Highside, urged the public to support and buy local products.
“Tacloban City is Eastern Visayas’s gateway. It’s where the local scene of music, food and business continues to thrive that makes Leyteños proud of its resiliency as a region. Because of this, Shopaholic’s Christmas Fashion and Food Bazaar will be showcasing Leyte’s carefully curated artisans, home cooks, homegrown entrepreneurs, local talents, culture and arts, small and medium enterprise to bring the festivities and the renewed spirit of its people this holiday season to the new booming mall in Tacloban,” Alagon said.
“We are very happy that organizers from the Happy Lane Events noticed our native products and invited us to join the event. This encourages us to showcase and offer rare to find handcrafts made of reed grass locally known as tikog,” added Ricky Bautista, a journalist turned “banig” weaving-entrepreneur in Basey, Samar.
On December 7, weavers and artisans from Bautista’s Henry’s Banig Souvenir Shop will perform on stage a live demonstration on how the mats and bags are being weaved.
Meanwhile, Alagon said some of the homegrown exhibitors who will join the bazaar are Miyara Patisserie (cakes and pastries), Bebe Love Clothing (stylish clothing), Health and Beauty Options, Viaje Holidays (travel agency), OMIJY Gift Shop, Phone 5, Tee Parties and Events, Bayin (artworks), Dry Goods-Jermaine, Pru Life among others.
Also included for food exhibitors are AngelCake Baking Co., Your Kitchen, Make My Day, Eastern Visayas Food Products, CDA Food Products, and another invited enterprise Magic Melt. (SunStar Philippines)