festivalization of the panagbenga festival

• In what year did Baguio becomethe Summer Capital of thePhilippines?

1903

(June 1, 1903)

•When do we celebrate BaguioCharter Day?

September 1

•A great calamity that struck thePhilippines in the year 1990 thatcaused great devastation to manyother parts of the country includingBaguio City.

EARTHQUAKE

•He proposed the idea of organizinga flower festival in Baguio.

a. Dean Worcester

b. James Wright

c. Damaso Bangoet

•The year when the first BaguioFlower Festival was launched.

1996

•Originally, how many days wasPanagbenga celebrated?

a. 10 days

b. Two weeks

c. Whole month of February

•He composed the PanagbengaTheme Song

a. Macario Fronda

b. Basilisa Cachero Pimentel

c. Judith Laoyan

•How do we call the foundation thatwas organized and tasked to managethe Panagbenga Festival?

Panagbenga Flower Festival Foundation Incorporated

•Why was February chosen to be themonth for the Panagbengacelebration?

Because FEBRUARY is the coldest time of the year, it boosts tourism during the lull moments, between the peak seasons of Christmas (December-January) and

summer (particularly, the Holy Week).

19 Years of Panagbenga: From Cultural Festival to Festivalization?

• Festival- “themed, public celebrations” of “community values,ideologies, identity, and continuity” and are occasions where“cultural elements are displayed which can educate an observerabout the host culture and community”. (Getz, 2010)

• In effect Getz considers all festivals as cultural festivals. Thesame is true for Presbury and Edwards (2010) who definedfestivals as “generally cultural celebrations” for “communitypride, cohesion, fun, and relaxation,” in the form of “carnivals,religious events, parades or heritage commemorations,” andare educational opportunities where people learn about artsand crafts, music, drama, sports, and culture

•Over-commodificationof festivalsexploited bytourism andplace marketers”(Getz, 2010: 5)

BAGUIO FLOWER FESTIVAL

BEFORE NOW

BAGUIO FLOWER FESTIVAL

For the past fourteen years, the BFFFI in partnership with government and private sectors have strategized ways and means of attracting bigger crowds. As a result, Panagbenga has drawn 1.6 million people a year, on average (personal interview of Vangie Payno, Chief of Staff, BFFFI).

BAGUIO FLOWER FESTIVAL

Funding for Panagbenga, has been sourced from the City Government (latest is PhP4 million), and solicited from donor corporations which buy ‘space’ in specific festival activities. Most of these support (cash or in kind) are used for prizes given to winners of different competitions, food sponsorships for volunteers, and materials for activities. Panagbenga operates with the help of over 3000 volunteers from civic organizations and local schools

Sustainable Development

=

development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ablility of future generations to meet

their own needs.

?

Brundtland Report, in Adams, 2009/1990

SUSTAINABILITY of the BAGUIO FLOWER FESTIVAL

SUSTAINABILITY BAGUIO FLOWER FESTIVAL

SUSTAINABILITY BAGUIO FLOWER FESTIVAL

SUSTAINABILITY BAGUIO FLOWER FESTIVALIgorot culture these days have been an object of

tourism. In other words, it has been commercialized

but also bastardized. In the traditional Igorot culture,

for example, the sound of the gong and the tayao are

sacred. Now, just for the entertainment of tourists, or

more precisely, just for the money, gongs are

indiscriminately played and the tayao danced

irreverently. It’s like going through the rites of the

Holy Mass for the entertainment of pagan tourists!

- Andres Cosalan

• Another area that is of concern is the commercialization ofindigenous culture through the conduct of festivals and the failureto respect culturally significant sites, primarily in the context of thepromotion of tourism in indigenous communities. Rituals, many ofwhich are sacred and solemn in the culture of Indigenous Peoples,are being performed in these festivals without regard to theirsacredness. Some of the festivals where Indigenous Peoples haveraised concerns over the abuse of their rituals and thecommercialization of their traditional songs and dances include theLang-ay Festival in Mountain Province, the Adivay Festival inBenguet and the Panagbenga festival in Baguio City (86-87).

Issues and contestations on Panagbenga’s cultural sustainability

SUSTAINING CULTURE IN CULTURAL FESTIVALS

ETHNOCENTRISM

RESPECT FOR CULTURAL INTEGRITY

OBSERVATION OF DELIBERATIVE DEMOCRACY

•Avoid starting with universal assumptions about a people’s culture

•Be aware how we might tend to treat the people of a certain culture as the same as us, or like us

•Respect for particularity is the route to transformation

• Let us not rush to resolve the points of impossibility in cultures, as they may reveal particular realities in people’s situations

•Cultures are not homogeneous

SUSTAINING CULTURE IN CULTURAL FESTIVALS

& Methodological Guidelines For Cultural Policy

•Recognition and tolerance of biocultural diversity. (Roosi and Poole, 2011 )

•Allowing individuals and communities ethico-political spaces to reflect, contest, negotiate , and re-figure culture and cultural markers as necessary (Parodi2011; Slater 1999).

• realization that cultural impossibilities are routes to transformation (Slater 1999)

PROVISIONAL ELEMENTS OF CULTURAL SUSTAINABILITY

Cultural sustainability is thus not about the permanent

maintenance of a collective, such that cultures growing

unsustainably will be at risk of extinction (Parodi,

2011). Neither can culture, nor cultural markers be

preserved, because they are at best to be reflected upon,

shaped, and modified. This requires political deliberation

by stakeholders on what would be viable, and workable.

BAGUIO RESIDENTS

• Recall the essenceof panagbenga as ‘a festivalfor baguio by baguio’.

• Highlight what baguioistruly known for: a thrivingculture and arts scene and adeeply environmentallyconscious people

PANAGBENGA MANAGEMENT

•Better communityparticipation in andownership of festivalactivities, along withsustained incomes forbusinesses and sponsors

HOW CAN INTEREST BE BALANCED?

RECOMMENDATIONS

•Conduct of a multi-stakeholder forumwhere all sectors concerned can deliberateon the future of panagbenga following theethics of ‘deliberative participation’, asdavid crocker (2008) elaborates.

•Development and application of ‘greencriteria’

• Overall, however, within management, a shift must occur againstmeasuring the success ofPanagbenga based on quantitativeindicators like the number of tourists, number of participants, andtotal revenue generated. Qualitative indicators must likewise be usedto determine whether or not, and to whatextent, Panagbenga contributed to the collective well-being of theBaguio community. This could be measured by the quality ofparticipation of community members in all stages of the festival.Beyond the month-long festival, there is a pressing need to invest inthe ongoing maintenance of public parks like Burnham Park, BotanicalGarden, Mines View Park, Wright Park, and in the greening of thecityscape in general.

CONCLUSION