Masskara 2010 Bacolod Experience
The “Masskara Festival” or “Mask Festival” is the popular tourism event in Bacolod. Held every 3rd week of October. The word “masskara” was coined by late artist Ely Santiago by combining the word mass (many) and cara (spanish word for face). The festival highlights is the Masskara street dance competition where competing groups dons colorful mask and costumes. Aside from the street dance, there’s Masskara Queen pageant, Trade fairs, concerts and other side events.
Masskara 2010 Winners – (Click to view)
Masskara Image Gallery – (Click to view)
This was actually my first time to witness Masskara Festival. I had no idea what to expect aside from the colorful masks and costumes. Travelling back and forth from Bacolod for me is a breeze especially with the Ocean Jet’s libre balik promo. I grabbed the chance to attend the festival with my fellow blogger Junelle who generously accomodated me in her hotel room. From work, I dropped by my photography class for the project then went straight to Ocean Jet. By the time I got there, there’s long queue of passengers. Lucky for me I already booked my ticket at traveller’s lounge in SM City Iloilo. One of the perks of blogging
Masskara Festival Day 1
One of the good thing about Masskara venue is that you don’t have to walk too far around the city area for the Masskara streetdance and there’s virtually an ATM machine just around the corner. Like a kid in a candy store, I voraciously took photos of the Masked participants. I was spoiled rotten by my newly purchased telephoto manual lens. I was so ready to throw away my kit lens. Things went perfectly until I heard a grinding sound and lo, my focus ring was jammed! That left me no choice but to use the dreadful kit lens.
I proceed to the plaza to watch the performance. The place was jam packed! Despite having a photographer’s ID, the police didn’t allow me to enter the plaza and continually ignored my pleas. If it weren’t for the Bacolodnons who helped me out, I wouldn’t been able to watch the performance. I wouldn’t complain about it but I saw other people who didn’t have an ID get in easily. Did I mention I paid for the ID?
I skipped out on the Electric Masskara since it was raining and being in “imbierna mode” made me soo tired. But Junelle and me feasted on whole lechon manok at Bacolod Chicken House. The roasted chicken was so deliriously heavenly with it’s crispy skin. Excuse me while I wipe off my drool.
Masskara Festival Day 2
On the second day, Me, Junelle and Marcos meet up with Eric, Bernie, Sinjin and other bloggers (guys I didn’t catch your names). We went on a trip to Silay and Victorias and back to Masskara. I made a last minute decision to skip on the plaza performance after all that ruckus yesterday. I just had to settle in taking pictures instead of taking videos. The videographer in me weeps. Of course the weather just couldn’t resist on literally “Rain on the parade”. Ominous clouds dilutes the colors and taking photos at that rate would require intense photoshop on the final shots. I decided to take off the area after taking mediocre photos since I don’t plan on sticking around if the rain decides to pour.
Masskara 2010 Aftermath
It’s hard to say if the Masskara festival was a success since it didn’t leave a good impression on other people including me. Most of the people I know unanimously agreed that the Masskara wasn’t organized well. My biggest complaint is that the festival started around 4pm and that leaves the photographers 1 1/2 hour to take vibrant photos.
Despite the shortcomings, I’m still open to go back again Masskara again but this time I will not bring much stuff since I’m not thrilled of being a “Beast of burden”. I’ll be sure to book in advance in nearby Bacolod hotels. Taking videos of the event is out of the question unless if they guarantee seats and better crowd control.
Tags: bacolod city, masskara 2010
Tuesday, October 19th, 2010 at 3:47 amand is filed under Negros Festival. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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