Experiencing Dinagyang on Higher Ground

This year’s Dinagyang Festival theme is so appropriate to the occasion. Every year, the country’s Best Tourism Spectacle is just getting bigger and better each year.

I have witnessed the last five Dinagyang (2005-2009) and I must say it has grown a lot really.

The music is getting better, new innovations are introduced every year. Various attractions are also offered so as not to make the entire festivities plain and boring.

A few years back, the Iloilo Dinagyang Foundation has included the drum and bugle corps competition which attracted several school groups to enlist.

They then scrapped the Barangay and Open categories and instead allowed all tribes to compete under a single category.

Fireworks competition was also introduced last year, which awed thousands of spectators.

This year we were able to witness the internationally-acclaimed group Wanders perform live during the awarding ceremonies, and its for FREE!

Though the Ati-ati contest of the dinagyang festival is better lat year, I can say that it has still amazed me in many ways. new instruments were used, costume changes keep the crowd wowing all the time. The fast paced choreography held us breathless.

While we enjoy the colorful spectacle, it is also an undeniable fact that there are some things that needs to be polished.

First is the application for the Media ID. I have been to various festivals and I must say that dinagyang is the hardest to deal with when it comes to Media ID request. Luckily though, they agreed to provide IDs to bloggers this year. I just hope that next year a more systematic Process will be in place, just like in cebu sinulog.

Another thing is the reserved area for the Media (or the lack thereof). We were assigned in Judging area #2 last weekend which is located at the Provincial Capitol Grounds. There is a reserved section just below the stage but only 3 or 4 seats are allowed for the media. question now is who are those lucky souls who got the seat, and why was there a reserved seat, and all the rest of the media were sitting on the pavement under the scorching heat of the sun?

Another thing that I do not like (though this is not just exclusive for Dinagyang) are the presence of the politicians making there presence felt during the fiesta. This has also happened last week in cebu sinulog. A politico’s son was even booed when he got inside the Abellana sports Complex, and i was there during that incident.

In Iloilo I have also seen several politicians shaking hands with the locals. This could have been ok if these politicos have not vested interest. Next year’s election already. And i bet they are alsoready making moves to let the people remember their name. Shameless campaigning, it is…

It is also very obvious that many tribes are ill-prepared due to the delay of budget allocation. i hope the Iloilo City council would act on the Dinagyang Budget as early as June to let the tribes prepare for a more extravagant production number.

I is my fervent wish that the dinagyang 2010 will be even more bigger and explosive. More tourists to come to the city. And more attractions to keep the crowd up all day and night.

Kudos to all the organizers tribe managers and the tribe dancers for putting up a great festivity despite all the problems faced prior to the big event.