Panagbenga Festival 2018

Panagbenga is Baguio city's flower festival, held every February. The whole month is filled with different events all around the city and ultimately ends with the grand street dancing and floats parades along the main Roads. For many years now, I've heard about the festival, but it's always accompanied with "warning: it'll be very crowded!" so I never thought of taking the 7-hour bus ride up north until this year! I went to the bus terminal late on Thursday night and was only able to catch a bus two hours later (long Baguio queue!). A bus ride from Victory Liner, Pasay to Baguio costs P455. 

Baguio city is up on the hills, so the weather is pleasant all year round; that's why Baguio is also called the Summer Capital of the Philippines because it's always cool. That's the first thing I noticed when I got off the bus - the air I inhaled felt very light and thin. We walked down session road and made a quick stop at the city market so I could meet some Bahá'i friends. I was blown away by the city market - walkway in the middle was wide and very clean... far from the typical noisy, smelly, crowded markets we have around here. Every time I visited Baguio in the past I was with my family and we had our car to drive and visit tourist places (Camp John Hay, Philippine Military Academy, The Mansion, Mines View Park, etc), so this was my first time to be exploring on foot and I was already in love with the city during my first two hours. 

Saturday

After a good night's rest, we headed into town at around 7:30 am. We were told to leave as early as 5 so that we could find a good spot to watch the parade, but... we took our sweet time. We arrived at Burnham park, walked through and ended at the Igorot Garden (beside Veniz Hotel) and boy was crowded! The parade didn't start until almost 9 am. When I heard the marching bands and spectators cheering, I realized I had to move around and find an elevated spot in order to see what's going on so I climed up the foot bridges and walked back and forth for almost an hour. The guards didn't let anyone stand still on the footbridge; there were lots of guards there making sure no one caused traffic up there so my only way was to move back and forth and just click as quickly as possible. 

At the corner of Magsaysay and Harrison roads, there are four footbridges connected like a square. I kept going round, until I finally figured out the path of the parade so I got down at the Maharlika mall, walked towards the market then climbed another footbridge until I found more picture-perfect spots.

My final spot was at the very end of Session Road, at the corner where the parade turned to Magsaysay Avenue. That curve wasn't very crowded because it was really sunny, with no shade nearby...but I was one of those people who didn't mind enduring some sunburn just in order to get up close pictures. I felt a little sorry for the performers though; some of them had to run because their bare feet were burning! I admired the traditional attires very much, and before leaving leaving Baguio I even bought myself an Igorot costume (skirt and pancho). 

Sunday

The next day, we didn't bother leaving home early. We assumed that we'd be able to do what we did the previous day - move from one spot to another...but we were completely wrong! Turns out, more people show up for the floats parade! This time, security allowed people stand on one side of the footbridges. I guess they knew they wouldn't be able to completely stop people from pausing, because the crowd was insane! When I got down to Magsaysay road (just under the Maharlika mall), it was impossible to move...everyone was standing still, watching the floats pass by. People were squeezing themselves in opposite direction trying to move. Every now and then I could hear people scream because they saw celebrities, so I would raise my camera up and I just kept clicking randomly. At one point I looked at my camera and saw two familiar faces in one of the floats - Megan Young and Mikael Daez. It didn't take long at all before me, my mom and our friend lost each other. We were swallowed into the crowd at different points. I couldn't handle it, so I made my way into the Maharlika mall (basement) and gave up for a bit. 

humans!

I just walked back and forth inside mall for almost an hour until I saw a lot of people swarming in and heading towards another exit. I followed the crowd and found myself back on the footbridges around Harrison Road, then I stood behind the spectators on the footbridge, raised my camera up again, just kept pressing the shutter button. I was lucky enough to get a few clear shots of what was happening down there...

While passing through the footbridge near the Igorot Garden, I noticed that the floats were entering the Melvin Jones Grandstand! When the parade was over, I found my Mom, we had lunch then decided to check out what was going on at the Grandstand...

...... Lo and behold! All the floats were parked in the field! We thought to ourselves, if we had known we'd be able to see the floats up close like this and take pictures with them, we wouldn't have bothered going to watch the parade! Beautiful floats created by different companies/organizations were displayed on the field. It was really inspiring seeing them up close and I couldn't help but wonder how much time or how many people it took to create these! 

Here are photos of some of my favorite exhibits: 

I was really happy with how our day turned out in the end. After admiring the floats, my Mom and I walked around Burnham park, sat by the pond and watched people paddle away. We also had a look at the stalls - people were selling almost everything in the park, from street food, to native souvenirs, to Western/branded items, to plants... Before heading back home, we passed by the market and overhauled on veggies! Because of the weather, Baguio is home to so many kinds of vegetables (eg. broccoli, mushrooms, lemon) and fruits (eg. strawberries!) that are not easily available in places like Manila... and even if they're available in Manila, they're way cheaper in Baguio!

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If you're planning to travel to Baguio and need a place to stay, send me a message (message box on the left side of my page) and I will recommend to you/give you details of the beautiful and comfortable transient house (owned by a family friend) we stayed at!