BAGUIO CITY - The government and private sectors in this mountain resort city have pooled together P10.2 million to bankroll the 16th edition of Panagbenga, popularly known as the Baguio flower festival, in order to usher in the influx of nearly two million tourists to boost the local economic and tourism growth and give life to one of the country's premier festivals. Out of the huge sum of money, P6.2 million will be shelled out by the Baguio Flower Festival Foundation, Inc. (BFFFI) through corporate and individual sponsors while P4 million was earmarked by the city government purposely to shoulder the prizes and subsidy for the winners of the various events. The month-long festival which kicked off Tuesday and will end on March 6 will highlight the famous market encounter along the Burnham Park lake drive from February 1 to March 6 where world-class floral arrangements and landscaping will be showcased to the likes of flower lovers. During Valentine's Day, park goers and promenaders will be given a triple treat with the famous fluvial parade where flower-decorated boats will parade on the lake which will be followed by entertainment from well-known national and local artists at night coupled with the city's cool and romantic weather landing in their faces as the city's prevailing temperature is expected to continuously drop. Organizers of the city's crowd drawing event have introduced innovations to this year's grand street dancing parade in the morning of February 26 where thousands of participants from the elementary, secondary, college, and open categories will be dancing to only one tune, which is a remix of the Panagbenga song and Cordillera music, with steps following various dances performed in the different parts of the region as they wear cordillera-inspired costumes.
While no known contingent will be performing in the various activities of the festival, this year's grand float parade, marching bands competition and drum and lyre contest will showcase floats that are decorated with fresh flowers to add more color to the growth of the festival through the years. To ensure the maximum participation of street dancers from the elementary and secondary levels, subsidies for their participation were significantly increased while participants to the fluvial parade will also get an increase in their assistance with the increased funding from the city government. For the past several years, the local government had been shelling out only P2 as financial assistance for the staging of the flower festival but due to the snowballing clamor for more attractive prizes and increased subsidy, local officials decided to provide bigger funding to compliment the growing number of participants to the said events. Anthony de Leon, chairman of the Panagbenga executive committee, said foreign and domestic tourists will have all the reasons to visit the country's undisputed Summer Capital during the major flower festival activities to witness the new trends in the conduct of the events which were designed to be pleasing to the eyes of everyone.
