Bago City opens 2012 with music, fireworks

BACOLOD CITY, Philippines  — A bigger crowd than the past three years is expected to watch the 4th Lights of Bago at the Manuel Y. Torres Memorial Sports Complex as Bago City’s annual event to open the new year.

Bago City’s yearly spectacle never failed to wow audiences from neighboring cities and towns, and this year’s staging at 7pm of January 1, 2012, would be a symphony of fireworks in synch with a musical theme.

Bago City Vice Mayor Nicholas Yulo, in a press conference at the Bacolod Business Inn, said this year’s musical theme is based on the popular TV series Glee to include songs like Walking on Sunshine, Don’t Stop Believing, Light Up the World, Time of my Life and Good Vibration.

David Villanueva, who was commissioned to provide for the musical fireworks display, told the media that every year his group tries to offer something new. For this year, he said he has invested on international level firing equipment where all firing is done from a computer source.

City Council secretary Brian Martir, for his part, assured the public that all basic security, traffic and preventive measures for the event are now in place but he appealed also to them to be vigilant themselves to deter any lapses.

With the P400,000 budget for the Lights of Bago each year, Yulo said the city is hoping to carry on the yearly tradition that will place Bago City in the map of tourism while promoting province-owned and city-owned tourist destinations by starting the year with a bang.

Raymond Stoffel, a retired international corporate lawyer from Luxembourg, started the vision for the first Lights of Bago that gained a favorable response from then Mayor Ramon Torres who made it a reality as the first of its kind in the country.

The Bago City government is inviting the public to witness this grand opening of the year which will light up the skies of the city with the music from Glee, which both the young and old generation can relate to. (FREEMAN)