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BAGUIO CITY—“Inspired by Beauty, Nurtured by Nature.” With this as the main theme the yearly festival of flowers, the country’s undisputed summer capital will play hosts to hordes of local and foreign visitors who will trek this city to catch the last phase of the cold weather and be inspired anew in the wondrous beauty of nature.
The Panagbenga, popularly known as the Baguio flower festival, has lined up for this year’s celebration several activities for visitors to “chill” in the nightly celebrations and “get chilled” with the cold weather, still being experienced here.
Residents and visitors will be in for a great with the upcoming conduct of the grand streetdancing and the celebrated float parades, two major highlights of the 22nd edition of the festival.
Some 21 streetdancing contingents will showcase their anticipated sterling performances along the five-kilometer parade route.
The magnificent parade will start from the Panagbenga Park along South Drive up to the Baguio Athletic Bowl passing through Upper Session road, Magsaysay Avenue, Harrison road, and Burnham Lake Drive Saturday morning.
The participating contingents composed of 9 delegations in the elementary level, 4 in the secondary level and 8 in the open category will also be showcasing their performances to the public at the Baguio Athletic Bowl aside from their performances along the parade route wherein the winners will be judged accordingly.
On the other hand, some 22 floats will be paraded along the 3-kilometer parade route from Upper Session Road up to the Melvin Jones grandstand passing through Session road and Harrison road. The floats, which will be composed of 9 small floats, 10 big floats and 3 non-competing floats, will be displayed at the Melvin Jones grandstand on Sunday for the appreciation of the residents and visitors wanting to take their pictures with the said flower-decorated floats.
Anthony de Leon, co-chairman of the Panagbenga Executive Committee, said that starting Feb. 27 up to March 5, Session road, the city’s main road, will be closed to vehicular traffic to pave the way for its conversion into a virtual promenade area with the put up of sidewalk cafes by the establishments in the area and food and souvenir stalls with flower-inspired products.
Nightly performances by local and national stage performers will be conducted in the stage erected at upper Session road during the week-long closure of the road to provide the public with added attractions aside from being able to freely roam around the road line.
De Leon added security and traffic preparations are also in their final stages to mitigate the effects of the weeklong closure of the city’s main roads to vehicular traffic.