CAUAYAN CITY, Isabela—Strutting their wares, more than 300 Bambanti Festival street dancers performed in front of the hometown crowd at the SM Cauayan Mall on Sunday.
The performance of the dancers—whose colorful costumes were inspired by the scarecrow symbol—portrayed the festive mood for farmers who earned bountiful corn and harvests in the past cropping seasons.
The street dancers later performed inside the mall.
“Bambanti” is the Ilocano word for scarecrow, and is used in rice fields to drive away birds and pests from crops.
The Bambanti Festival is also regarded as a demonstration of thanksgiving for the Isabelenos’ consistently rich agricultural harvest.
The festival also aims to highlight and celebrate the diligence and resilience of Isabela farmers. The province remains one of the country’s biggest corn producers.
The province had previously received the National Quality Corn award for being the consistent top corn producer nationwide with annual 1.2 million metric tons production and biggest rice surplus with 1.3 million metric tons production.