Pasinaya, a bountiful harvest

February, which is National Arts Month, started off on a high note with the 20th iteration of Pasinaya, the Cultural Center of the Philippines’ annual open house festival, on the month’s first weekend. With the iconic Lindy Locsin-designed main building still closed for a massive three-year renovation, the over 200 events and performances were held in sites spread out across the CCP complex on Roxas Blvd. and in partner venues like the Metropolitan Theater in Manila and the Samsung Performing Arts Theater in Makati. Nearly 60,000 people – whole families with lolas and lolos and kids in tow, bagets and barkadas, ladies who lunch dressed down in jeans and rubber shoes – joined the fun over the weekend.

February was declared National Arts Month by virtue of PD 683 issued in 1991 by then president Cory Aquino to celebrate the diversity of Filipino culture and heritage, to recognize the contributions of Filipino artists and cultural workers and to highlight the importance of arts and culture in nation building.

Pasinaya – a word referring to the beginning of harvest – started in February 2005 as an occasion for the CCP’s resident companies to give a glimpse of their shows for the year. The event quickly took on a life of its own; by its fifth year it involved artists and arts groups from all over the country. By its 10th year, the festival went beyond the CCP complex to museums and venues in the Roxas Blvd. area and Intramuros, with Art Jeepneys shuttling audiences to the different venues. Then CCP artistic director Chris Millado, who started Pasinaya, said at the time, “The hope is to infect the whole city with the idea of a one-day or two-day festival.”

Oh, how Pasinaya has grown! It’s now not just the city but the whole country, with regional partners holding events featuring local artists. This year, Pasinaya was held in Batangas (with 99 groups participating), Himamaylan, Negros Occidental (25 groups), Iloilo (18), Sorsogon (21) and Tagum, Davao del Norte (13).

And it’s even gone international. The Philippine embassies in Amman, Jordan and Tripoli, Libya will have their own Pasinaya events to celebrate National Arts Month on Feb. 14, while the Philippine consulate general in Guangzhou, China is meeting with universities and performing groups on Feb. 18 to prepare for an arts festival in November.

Pasinaya still operates under the watch-all-you-can/pay-what-you-can concept that has since expanded to shop-all-you-can (with 55 food and non-food booths) and workshop-all-you-can, as varied arts companies – not just the CCP resident companies – conducted free workshops throughout the two-day festival.

“Originally envisioned as a preview to the upcoming year’s performances of the CCP and its resident companies, the CCP Pasinaya has thrived and grown over the last 20 years owing to the ever-increasing audiences that participate in its activities – from the pocket performances to the capsule workshops and even the museum tours,” CCP artistic director and multi-awarded theater director Dennis Marasigan told The STAR. “These only prove that Filipinos are eager to participate in arts activities, even those that they are unfamiliar with, if these can be made available to them at affordable costs.”

Pasinaya has become not just a two-way street but a bustling highway, bringing people to the CCP and to theaters and museums (this year 18 partner museums joined the festival), but also bringing the arts to the people where they are, in their communities, to their schools and plazas. From marching bands to symphonic orchestras, from street dancing to ballet and contemporary dance, from theater to film, from artisanal crafts to homemade goodies, from the riches of our traditions to tech-infused modern expressions,  Pasinaya as a signature program of the CCP has truly opened up the arts to the people, reiterating its relevance to nation building and national development, and its indispensability in defining who we are and who we hope to become. 

This year’s theme says it all: Para sa Lahat. Art for all.