THE City Government of San Carlos in Negros Occidental successfully held its first Seafood Festival in Sipaway Island on June 22.
San Carlos City Mayor Renato Gustilo said they are promoting the tourism in Sipaway Island to attract more tourists to visit and explore the island.
Sipaway Island has a total of 6,000 population composed of two barangays, Barangays San Juan and Ermita.
Gustilo said the island is known as a seafood destination in San Carlos City with 24-hour electricity and water supply.
Jennifer Saballa, city tourism officer, said the festival highlighted various seafood dishes like the most abundant shell in the island locally known as “aninikad.”
She said several fisherfolk associations in the island joined the activities such as cooking contest of “aninikad” dishes, beach volleyball, and coconut wine locally known as “tuba” drinking contest.
They also held a fluvial parade, a Zumba, and Bugsay competition, which was participated by five members each from the two villages.
“Our main target is to boost the tourism in the island through these kind of activities. This is also our way to entice tourists to visit the island which is a 10-minute boat ride from the city port,” Saballa said.
She said they want their visitors to have a glimpse of the normal activities in the island.
“The one day festivity in the island was successful. Hundreds of tourists and visitors enjoyed our first seafood festival,” she added.
Saballa said that by next year, they are planning to change the name of the festival into a “Aninikad Festival” to highlight the most abundant shell found in the waters of Sipaway.