Sunday school, Christmas Eve, birthdays, school district competitions, stage presentations, shopping at National Bookstore (yes, I was a nerd), seeing my Dad dancing with my Mum … these are a few things I used to get excited about when I was a little girl. I was blessed to be living within a close-knit neighborhood in a suburb where we both had the luxury of the modern city life and the opportunity to enjoy the traditional practices of our culture.
Back home, the month of May offers colourful Ati-atihan exhibition; a band parade, Santa Cruzan, talent presentation and competition, the fabulous ethnic games such as “palosebo” (greased bamboo sliding), and the sharing of food and delicacies between friends. That’s the Fiesta I enjoyed and remember.
Cultural dance in a Philippine fiesta in the Philippines
Last year, pondering upon providing entertainment to our “kababayans”, I encountered a few people who had plenty of horror stories to share. I was warned about how a band won a competition but did not receive their reward, how people were invited to entertain only to have an entrance fee imposed upon them at arrival and how the prices of stalls seem to inflate every year and more. I thought, “How bad can this really be? Why is it getting such negative feedback?”
After giving it another go last September, I have a few issues I would like to raise:
Cultural dance
2. Cost – I have been told that proceeds from these Fiestas, which I am assuming are from sponsors, stalls, entrance fees, competition registrations, etc less the site fee (don’t worry about the manpower as most of them are volunteers), apparently are being donated back home.
a. I am truly interested how much are we really donating there and who are we giving them to?
b. Can’t we save up a fraction of that money to buy a property here in Sydney so we can have a hall we can call our own – which in turn can be used to encourage more activities for further fund-raising for overseas and local Pinoy community?
c. Can we reduce the cost or make it free by getting more sponsors instead of hitting the stall owners and general public? Wouldn’t we attract more sponsors if we have more people attending? And wouldn’t we attract more people attending if they are not faced with such ridiculous cost? The cost of the stall for the Strathfield Spring Fair was $180 last year and it attracts more people every year. Why does ours cost $1000 or more?
d. There must be better ways to encourage donations back home such as date “bidding” or voluntary donations from other Pinoy organizations. This way we can bring all those little groups together and see unity in action.
3. Activities – Why do we have Fiesta’s in the first place? What are the primary goals? What are we trying to promote? Isn’t Fiesta a celebration of talents, culture, community and our history?
a. Wouldn’t it be great to see performers promoting traditional acts such as “Kundiman”, “Tinikling”, Ati-atihan and “Balagtasan”? This would be a great avenue to revive our tradition not only to other cultures but to enrich the knowledge of our younger generation.
b. Wouldn’t it encourage further integration if we have stalls promoting “Tourism” back home?
c. Isn’t it the responsibility of the organizers to ensure this event conveys a positive image of our society and culture?
d. What are they doing to educate others to promote Filipinos to the rest of the world? Wouldn’t it be the perfect time for volunteers to hand out flyers containing snapshots of our heritage, what’s happening back home, promoting our successes across the globe – maybe introduce names such as Pacquiao, Charice Pempengco, Lea Salonga, etc.
Maybe we can learn from the Chinese New Year and 3-day Latin Fest in Darling Harbour held February last year, the Leichhardt Italian Fest in August or the Vietnamese Fest just a few weeks prior to ours last September.
My challenge to the organizer/s: Let’s bring fun to this event. Let’s bring back the old Fiesta we all used to enjoy, revive the enthusiasm within the community and make this a true celebration about us instead.
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Photos: Dancers performing in fiestas and cultural shows in the Philippines. // emanila.com photogallery and Phil Dept of Tourism
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*** Bless Salonga is a creative writer whose passion includes business management & coaching, choreography and music.
Other post/s by Bless Salonga
- Calling Australia home is more than words - January 26th, 2012
- Education starts with DO-RE-ME - January 17th, 2012
- Chained by Fate - November 27th, 2011
- Isang Hibla - July 25th, 2011
- Independence is about accountability - June 22nd, 2011
About Bless Salonga
I honestly believe that the organizers were trying to be the best that they can be on whatever limited resources and skills that they have to make the event more cultural and Filipino. Based on what I had witnessed in other countries in the past, Filipino cultural movements and organizations appeared to have that same pattern when organizing cultural events. They exclusively cater to the old traditional Filipino practices of being exclusive, and appeared to treat others outside of the Filipino community as guests and not as potential friends and customers. The emerging modern Filipino mentality is more of the outgoing inclusive type which does not cater but is looking for opportunities to promote the Filipino culture; is more open to new ideas; and is flexible in adopting non-traditional American marketing skills. I think these new Filipinos are more patriotic, and are not ashame to show the world the best side of the Philippines despite a poorly run governemt. I think that they should take over the organization of these cultural events to make it more visible and understandable to the communities of the country of their residence at large.
Hi Simeon or Tito Sim,
Over-all I agree that most organizers do their best to produce the best outcome. In this instance though, I am highlighting the main Fiesta that we celebrate here in Sydney every year between September and October. I strongly believe that the “cultural” factor is missing and the element of “integration” is almost non-existent. The event, based on my opinion, is attended by about 90% Filipino nationals; the other 10% would be the husbands/wives or really close friends of some Pinoys. Unlike other festivals, ours look more like an “exclusive” party as you have described.
I definitely agree that we should give the responsibility of organizing a major event like this to the modern Filipinos who are bold thinkers, can be more enthusiastic and open-minded. Make way for the new breed; let them carry the flag to new heights!
hi bless,
Your article caught my interest.I personally believe that cultural presentations has something to do with moral development of an individual.Festivities displays our traditions and beliefs and it is a big responsibility of the organizer to first be able to know the real point of concern of whatever cultural presentation he/she will organize for the liability of the organizer is to our history and heritage.
We all know that one of the purpose of this kind of event abroad is to raise fund and it is understandable and acceptable but cultural presentation must still be done to display traditional Filipino moral and values as much as possible to attain it’s real purpose of character development among the audience and participants as well.
This is my ultimate reason why cultural cultivation in our schools here in the locality is one of my priority to promote and use in building character to our students today.
Thanks for the comment, Michelle. You are on the right track.
Of course, everything should start at home. In time, the church, community (this includes media) and school shares equal responsibility for honing these very same values we learn from our parents.
There are various means to stimulate, influence or enrich someone’s mind and the grand Fiesta is a major avenue where, not only we can highlight generosity or our local talents, but also promote our various domestic resources (tourism, trade, job skills, etc), capture our identity and inspire our children of the heroism and patriotism of our forefathers and reveal to the rest of the world how colourful our heritage really is. We need to remain proud of our past achievements and reconnect our children to the lost pages of our history especially to those who were born here.
Pity that Manny Castillo (the long-time organizer here) has not responded to this yet as it would be fantastic to know and try to understand his position.
Fiesta is coming soon! Just thought I’d share this –
Indonesian Festival
Dance, music and the yummiest of Indonesian cuisine, including satay, bakso, siomay, otak- otak, gudeg Yogya, mie goreng, will transport you to the island nation.
Date: Saturday 07 August 2010
Time: 10.00 AM – 05.00 PM
Forgot to mention that this is going to be held in Darling Harbour.
This article got my attention. I’ve only been to 2 Filipino Fiesta’s and set my eyes not to return again. I think you’ve highlighted your points anyway – in line with why I don’t go. Pricing, quality and organization are lack there of.