It is April once again and this month signals the start of the summer season for all countries in Asia and the start of a couple of weeks of school’s summer. In the Philippines, April marks the start of celebrations leading to a famous festival.  This festival is none other than the Bangus Festival, one of the most prominent local celebrations that last for almost the whole month of April.  For 2009, celebrations will start of April 16 all the way until May 1. Bangus or Milk fish, the national fish of the Philippines, can actually be cooked or prepared in about a hundred ways.  This kind of fish is so close to the hearts of Filipinos that they have even organized a festival just to give honor to the Bangus or specifically to the Bonuan Bangus which is believed to have delectable taste of its own that cannot be found in other varieties of Milk fish.

Dagupan celebrates the Bangus Festival wherein the objective is to promote the province as “The Bangus Capital of the Philippines” and make it a major tourist spot in the process.  Dagupan is located about 212 kilometers north of the capital city of Manila.  Aside from the annual Bangus Festival, this province is famous for its numerous beaches that are perfect for swimming and other water activities like scuba diving, snorkelling, and jet skiing among others.  Dagupan can be reached by land travel from Manila and travel time can range from three to five hours depending on the traffic situation, road conditions and season.

The Bangus Festival, which is also called the Festival of the North, starts with the traditional lighting of about 1, 000 barbecue grills which will be used to cook thousands and thousands of Bangus for the event.  These flaming grills will be positioned one after another along the streets and can extend up to two kilometres long.  You could just imagine the unbelievable sight of this.  These smoking grills are said to be reason why the Philippines was included in the highly prestigious Guinness Book of World Records for holding the record for the longest line of barbecue grills. Locals and wide-eyed tourists make it a point to attend the Bangus Festival to either participate in or simply watch the events that are lined up during this event.  For one, there is the usual fish cooking competition or what is more popularly called the “101 Ways to Cook Bangus Competition”.  Hundreds to participants enlist in this contest to showcase their winning recipes and cooking prowess by preparing the most delicious and the most creative Bangus dishes.

Aside from the Bangus cooking competition, another exciting activity that happens amidst the festivities is the unique Bangus Rodeo. This Bangus Rodeo is composed of the Bangus eating contest, competition for the title of the Best Bangus Deboner or Fastest Bangus Clasifier and a Bangus Awarding wherein the holder of the heaviest and the biggest Bangus get to be recognized and are awarded. To top all these activities, a street party is also held which usually start with the high powered presentations of dancers that perform to rejoice and give thanks for the bountiful Bangus produced during harvest season.  Street Dancing, or what is called the “Gilon”, is one of the highlights of the festival as it is here when a presentation of how the Bonuan Bangus is harvested takes place.  The Street Dancing is organized at the downtown streets of the province during the eve of the last day of the Bangus Festival. Participants in the Street Dancing are not only limited to Dagupan but a lot of them come from faraway places.

More Bangus are grilled on the long line of barbecue grills while locals and visitors from far off places gather to chat, enjoy great food and drink to their hearts’ content.  Usually, there are even famous bands that perform on the stage that is set up at the center of the plaza.  That’s not all.  It has also been a tradition that well-known local celebrities are invited to grace the festivities and perform to the delight of the people of Dagupan.   Of course, no festival will be complete without sampling the scrumptious food that were prepared off the long line of barbecue grills and the works of art prepared during the Bangus cooking contest.

So if you would like to experience a unique festival during your visit to the Philippines then mark your calendars this April and head to Dagupan for the yummy Bangus Festival.

Posted in Events, Philippines

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 7th, 2009 at 12:11 am and is filed under Events, Philippines. 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.