Crowd remains major concern during Sinulog - organizers

CEBU, Philippines - Like in previous years, crowd control during the Grand Parade remains a major concern in this year’s Sinulog festivities.

Following post evaluation, Sinulog Executive Director Ricky Ballesteros said initiatives should be put in place to improve crowd control especially in the streets.

“Every year, the more people watching, the more people love Sinulog,” he said.

Ballesteros said there is a need to educate those who intend to experience the Sinulog, especially the Grand Parade, even before the start of the festivities. He said they will tap the help of media in disseminating information on how to properly behave in the streets and inside the Cebu City Sports Complex where the participating contingents would showcase their final performance.

What happens, he said, is that in their excitement to get near the dancing contingents for photo opportunities, people unconsciously interrupt the routines of the dancers, which, in turn, affect the judging.

He said marshals in the streets need to be trained further on how to control the crowd efficiently.

Aside from crowd control, Ballesteros said there is also a need to strictly implement rules upon parade participants themselves. For example, participating floats are not allowed to throw products or giveaways to the crowd, but some floats still reportedly did so during the Grand Parade.

Organizers have anticipated that spectators would go unruly when freebies are thrown to them.

“Amo tawgon ang ilang attention. Naa biya jud sila pag briefing nga dili sila manglabay og merchandise items, pero naa gyuy uban nga nisupak. We will review those tapes and see who violated it and we will remind them again to strictly follow the rules or else we will disqualify them,” Ballesteros said.

Furthermore, Ballesteros said they will work with establishments along the parade route to ensure that they can accommodate dancers who might want to use their restrooms.

“Naa man gud ni reklamo nga mga contingents nga wala sila pagamita sa C.R. nya dili biya lalim… we even sent them letters concerning that matter,” he said.

As far as the creative aspect of the festivities is concerned, Ballesteros said he would describe this year’s Sinulog as a “remarkable festival” with the “excellent” choreography of the participating contingents and stage production. He said they will continue to arrive at better concepts every year. This year, the grand finale adopted a Chinese-inspired theme.

“They are some suggestions made that next year’s theme should be beyond Sinulog… beyond international or a futuristic style. Since our generation today is an IT generation, daghan jud maganahan. Maybe mid of May this year, ma-finalize na namo,” he said. — (FREEMAN)