By Jessica M. Bacud
ALICIA, Isabela – This bustling town under the leadership of Mayor Joel Amos Alejandro recently celebrated the popular Pagay Festival Balitok Ti Alicia.
Mayor Alejandro emphasized the festival’s significance in preserving the community’s cultural identity and heritage, as well as in promoting the municipality’s main agricultural product, pagay — the Ilocano term for rice, the municipality’s major livelihood source and trademark.
The Pagay Festival Balitok Ti Alicia was successful, he noted.
“I was impressed by the high school students’ explosive skills and even more by the elementary school students, who demonstrated their best street and showdown prowess dancing,” the mayor-lawyer said.
Meanwhile, Aida P. Alejandro, Chairman of the Municipal Cultural and Tourism Council, said the festival is a harvest celebration “in acknowledgment of our farmers’ contributions to our town’s economic prosperity.”
“We look forward to celebrating the festival in the coming years,” she said.
One of the festival’s highlights was the street dance and showdown competition, in which the contingents danced along the town’s promenade and at Alicia’s Oval.
Street dancers from the area’s primary and secondary schools added energy and excitement to the vibrant performance and were greeted with resounding applause.
Several competitions were held as part of the event, which is heavily attended by the locals.
The Pagay Festival Balitok Ti Alicia celebrates rice as one of the golden grains that enabled Angadanan Viejo, now known as Alicia, become one of the primary business hubs in the area. This is done in appreciation of the town’s reputation as one of the province’s largest producers of palay.
Since the Lady of Atocha was brought to the country by the Spanish conquistadors via Mexico in the 1700s, she is worshiped during the event. Couples dress up in vibrant costumes for the event as a means to appreciate and adore the image, creating a joyful environment across the town as they dance in the streets.
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