The pinch that hit some Philippine tourism destinations due to the Aug. 23 Manila hostage tragedy seemed unfelt in Bacolod City as the famed “City of Smiles" started its 31st yearly MassKara Festival on Friday.
City tourism officer Imogene Kana-an said 80 to 90 percent of hotel rooms in the city had been booked, the Visayan Daily Star reported on its news website on Saturday. Cebu Pacific, which has daily flights to Bacolod, held an early promo sale for plane tickets for flights from September 1 to October 31.
Kana-an said this shows the influx of tourists arriving for the MassKara festival, and advised those who wish to visit Bacolod to have their rooms booked before the festival’s main events on October 15, 16 and 17.
The festival highlights include the Electric Masskara and the Masskara Streetdance competition, as well as a ramp modeling competition and a beauty pageant.
The festival, which translates to a "multitude of smiling faces" from 'mass,' which means “many, or multitude," and 'kara,' Spanish for "face."
On the other hand, city police have beefed up security for revelers.
Bacolod City police chief Senior Superintendent Celestino Guara said the Public Safety Management Battalion has sent a 30-member platoon to help secure the revelers.
Seventy more personnel from PSMB will arrive in the city on October 7 while 45 from Police Stations 2 to 10 in Bacolod were also deployed at the downtown area to help secure the area, Guara said.
The Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office has also sent 20 men to help the city police maintain the peace and order during the festival.
The 19-day festival started Friday on a festive note, with silver balloons and a shower of confetti at the atrium area of the government center after Mayor Evelio Leonardia declared the festival open.
Leonardia said this year’s MassKara is unique as it was the first time that the State of the City Address was delivered during its opening, held also for the first time at the city’s Government Center.
Yet another first is that the music to be used for the streetdance competition was chosen in a music-writing contest. The 2010 MassKara uses "Kari sa Bacolod!", an invitation for the world to see and experience Bacolod, according to festival director Eli Tajan-langit.
Leonardia expressed optimism that the hostage crisis in Manila last Aug. 23 will have minimal effect on this year’s festival.—With Carmela G. Lapeña/JV
