Panagbenga at SM City Baguio

MANILA, Philippines - SM City Baguio will be in bloom again as it celebrates the Panagbenga Festival this month and early March. With two of the festival’s major highlights — the Street Dancing Competition and the Float Parade. It also joins in the fun with cultural activities, contests and concerts.

Also known as the Baguio Flower Festival, Panagbenga, is a kankanaey term meaning “a season of blooming.“ It is a tribute to the beautiful flowers this mountain city is known for.

The Panagbenga Festival has been held in February each year since 1995 showcasing floats abloom with flowers like that of Pasadena’s Rose Parade, street dancing with an ethnic touch, market encounters and other activities. The Igorot culture is also highlighted — through the street dancers’ Cordillera-inspired costumes, and the traditional Bendian, an Ibaloi dance of celebration.

The mall’s Events Center will be transformed into an al fresco café serving some of Baguio’s best brews and pastries starting today. Some of the city’s top performers will bring music to the mall as they serenade shoppers during the Blooms & Brews Café Evenings.

The season of flowers is also a season for great shopping with Panagbenga Specials at the mall from Feb. 27 to March 1. While checking out the bargains, take time to view Flowerfest, an exhibit of Photographs of Flowers and Gardens ongoing until March 30 at the gallery of the mall’s lower basement.

Mallgoers can join in the flower fever and express their creativity in the Flower Up Your Hat Competition. They can send in their entries inspired by the Panagbenga Festival until March 8. Greenwich Pizza will treat its customers to a Pizza Pasta Party on Feb. 28 at the Events Center.

Local band K-Lite will perform on stage during the First Baguio Music Fest on March 6 at The Drive, 5 p.m.

SM’s Floriade Street Party, on the other hand, will have mallgoers dancing to the rhythm of South Border on March 7, 5 p.m. at The Drive.

GMA talents will meet and greet fans on Feb. 27, 10 a.m. at the Events Center while the Kapamilya Karavan will make a stop at the mall on March 1, 10 a.m. with a variety show featuring ABS-CBN’s stars at the Events Center.

Aloha Philippines will join in SM’s event for Panagbenga with dances inspired by the beautiful — and blooming — south Pacific Islands — Hawaiian, Tahitian, and Polynesia, including fire poi dancing. It will culminate in a Grand Fireworks Display on March 8, 6 p.m. at The Drive.