Art, music, food and fun for all and sundry at Bacolod’s MassKara Festival

As I write this, I’m still caught up in the MassKara fever here in Bacolod City, Negros Occidental. 

While this is my fourth visit to what has been touted as the “City of Smiles,” this is actually my first-ever MassKara Festival and I’m loving it! Since arriving Thursday, I’ve met fascinating personalities including the multi-awarded director Peque Gallaga, who has been mentoring budding filmmakers in Bacolod and the soft-spoken designer-professor-visual artist Bamboo Tonogbanua, who let me into his home to have—even if it’s not December yet—a preview of his amazing miniature Christmas Village.  

I also chanced upon VisMin executives of Smart, who graciously invited me to a luncheon with local media bigwigs. With Carla Gomez, editor-in-chief of Visayan Daily Star and who is a fellow Silliman University alumna, we had fun recollecting and comparing notes on daring escapades as dormers during our college days in Dumaguete City.

Last Saturday, I was invited by the MassKara Festival Committee, headed by Eli Tajanlagit, to judge the street-dance competition. Elevated on a makeshift stage set up along Araneta St., we were able to watch the colourful pomp and spectacle showcased by 28 barangays swinging it out for the top plum. The masks came in assorted designs—collectively and creatively translating the theme for this year’s festival, “The Icons of Bacolod.” 

As the day progressed to dusk on Saturday, together with GMA 7 Corp-Com execs and Manila entertainment columnists and editors—Dolly Ann Carvajal of Inquirer, Ian Farinas of People’s Tonight, Eugene Asis of People’s Journal and Walden Belen of Manila Bulletin—we hit Lacson St., the whole stretch of which was closed off to traffic and was bubbling with music, food and the arts. According to Mayor Bing Leonardia, it was the first time that Lacson St. was used to hold many of the major events of the MassKara Festival like the electric MassKara night (yes, as in glowing, energy-powered masks) and the fantasy costume contest, among others. Mayor Leonardia envisions it as Bacolod’s version of Malate, with the entire length of Lacson St. getting increasingly dotted with restos, coffee shops and bars.    

And much later into the night we dropped by SM Bacolod City, which is already considered a landmark what with its very modern-looking and unique structural design, for a concert of rock band Calla Lily (the day before it was Parokya ni Edgar). SM Bacolod also organized the first drum beating tilt.   

Expect more stories about this city and its people in the days to come. For the meantime, I’m off to carry on the good fun of the final day of the MassKara Festival.