THE City Government of Bacolod is all set for the 1st Bacolod Chicken Inasal Festival on May 5.
The festival is one of the activities in the city’s 80th-anniversary celebration this year.
Councilor Cindy Rojas, chairperson of the Inasal Festival, said yesterday the grilling ceremony will start at 4:30 p.m. at the Araneta Street from Diamond Jubilee Tower towards San-Sebastian Street.
This will be 300 meters of grilled chicken.
The City Council had earlier approved the amendment of some provisions in the City Ordinance No. 482, known as the "Manokan Country Inasal Festival in the City of Bacolod, like the coverage of the festival and the budget.
Section 2 of the ordinance stated that the festival shall have the exclusive coverage from the corner of Rizal-Ferrero Streets encompassing the whole Manokan Country area up to the corner of Burgos-Ferrero Streets only.
Rojas said in previous years, it was called as Manokan Country Inasal Festival, but this time this is called the 1st Bacolod Inasal Festival because this will be participated by various chicken inasal vendors and not by Manokan Country vendors only.
“We opened this for everybody who engaged in chicken inasal business in Bacolod. We already received 25 chicken inasal vendors to join the grilling ceremony and 12 of them are from Manokan Country. We will provide 3,000 chickens including the grills,” she said.
Since this is the first year, Rojas said it will be a one day event only and if it will become successful, they could make it a big event in the next celebration.
In 2009, the City Government attempted to break the world record in the longest barbeque grill at the north wing parking areas of SM City Bacolod.
Rojas said this year, they could not make to break the world record for lack of time to comply with the requirements which take for six months.
The city government will distribute tickets to the barangays to control the crowd and it is for free.
Rojas said that based on the ordinance, the city will allocate P2 million for the festival, but they will only use half of the budget for the city’s savings.
Councilor Em Ang, chairperson of the City Council committee on tourism, said the Inasal Festival will further boost the city’s economic growth and tourism.
“Aside from Inasal Festival, we have already the MassKara Festival, BacoLaodiat Festival, and Diwali Festival,” she said.
She added the Inasal Festival is an annual celebration and it will be celebrated every first week of May because it is summer and there is no problem with the supply of chicken.
“We would like it to become one of the big festivals here in the future,” Ang said.
Israel Salanga, event director of Inasal Festival, said after the grilling ceremony, they will hold Bacolod Chicken Inasal boodle fight in front of Old City Hall at 5 p.m.; Hip-hop Dance Showdown in Bacolod Public Plaza at 5 p.m.; and the opening of kiosks at Araneta Street, 7:30 p.m.; Zumanokan Dance exercise competition at Araneta Street at 8 p.m. followed by the street party at Araneta Street.
He said they requested 200 police personnel from the Bacolod City Police Office and 100 traffic enforcers from the Bacolod Traffic Authority Office to secure the festival site. (MAP)