LOCAL communities and associations took part in Aloguinsan’s festivities this year.
The Kinsan Festival in Aloguinsan, a southern municipality of Cebu, featured the community-based associations, who showed off their products and services in the community fair beside the municipal hall.
Aloguinsan Young Visual Artists showcased artworks of the Aloguinsan children, while the Vendors Association displayed food, vegetables and fruits harvested from their communities.
Starting this year, the direction of the festival is to “put a heart and soul” into the festival and to emphasize the town’s collective sense of identity, said the organizers.
Aside from the community fair last Sunday, the celebration showcased the local talents in a street dance and presentation by last year’s winners of the dance ritual showdown.
The winners from different public schools in the municipality performed dance steps imitating the movement of the “Kinsan” fish and the way of life of the fishermen and their families in the area.
Kinsan is a gray-colored fish abundant only in the waters of Aloguinsan, where according to legend, the town’s name was derived. Aloguinsan is said to come from “ulo sa kinsan” or head of the kinsan.
This year’s festival also highlighted the knowledge and importance of Aloguinsan’s natural and cultural resources, which the townsfolk can use for economic opportunities.
The media were shown to one of the town’s gems for ecotourism, the Bojo River headed by the Bojo Aloguinsan Ecotourism Association.
The river cruise takes one from the river to the open sea, where tourists can dive, snorkel or swim. It is an income-generating project for the people of Barangay Bojo in Aloguinsan.