Masskara Festival 2010: My Post-mortem Analysis

Masskara Festival 2010 is over. Tourists have already started to fly out of Bacolod city, while the city cleaners are now busy removing all the trash on the streets and the banderitas that were hung all over the city.

Just like in the previous editions of the festival, this year’s MassKara has its ups and downs too. Lets start with the plus points:

- Tourists arrivals. I guess this year’s tourist arrivals has increased. The number of people walking along the Lacson tousim Strip, and along the Public Plaza area at night time is just so crazy! Ang dami daming tao! this is a good indicator of how successful Masskara Festival is.

Crowd along Araneta Street

- Electric Masskara has improved by leaps and bounds. This year, we have seen the best Electric Masskara ever. I hope next year, schools and private conpanies would also join in Electric Masskara.

- Masskara Music. Finally! We have a better Masskara Music this year. I know there are still some who are not in agreement with this statement. But mind you, This year’s music is much M-U-C-H better than the previous music.

and here are some of the things that needs to be improved for a better Masskara Festival 2011:

- Photographer’s ID System. When I first heard that the Silver Masskara foundation Office is charging PHP500 for each ID, I really didn’t mind, because other Festivals are also doing this, like the Sinulog in Cebu and the Pintados Kasadyaan in Tacloban. Cebu is charging PHP600 for the ID + Tshirt, while Pintados Kasadyaan is charging PHP 300, both IDs entitles you to submit entries to photo contest.

Both festival IDs allow you to shoot in the middle of the street during the street dance and at the same time shoot inside the stadium during the finale performances. But the IDs in Masskara Festival is different. Police and security personel do not allow the photographers to get inside the public plaza. I hav heard a hell lot of complaints about this. In fact, several of my Manila friends who also paid the IDs were blocked from entering the palza to shoot. So, para saan pala ang ID?

I also thought that the ID who actually differentiate serious photographers from those Facebook-happy peeps. I thought that it’s only those with IDs that will be allowed on the streets to shoot. Now why is it that there are a hell lot of people with camera who doesn’t have an ID shoot in the middle of the street, ang iba nakaka lusot pa sa loob ng plaza.

And several photographers were not allowed to get inside the plaza to shoot, I have seen several foreign tourists without IDs that were allowd to get inside the plaza to take photos. Is this another case of discrimination against local tourists? Remember that several tourists paid PHP500 just to have an ID to get a closer view of the Masskara Dancers, while some foreign tourists were free to get in and out of the plaza without IDs. Several friends of mine complained that they were not allowed to get inside the plaza area by the police. Ako ang nahiya, kasi dinala ko mga yan dito s Bacolod to experience our very own fiesta. And all of these friends of mine are all bloggers, who will also be writing good about our city and our festival. Sayang. Nahuya gd ako sang gin himo sang mga pulis.

Streetdance parade – Since time immemorial the streetdancing would normally start at 1 or 2PM. I wonder who’s idea it was to move the streetdance to 4PM. I heard some unconfirmed rumors that the reason why it was moved because mainit daw masyado for the dancers. HELLO! We have been doing this Masskara Street dance for 3 decades already, its only today that you complained of the heat? Ever heard of the Cebu Sinulog Festival? Do you know what time is their streetdance? Normally it’s from 8AM to 7PM. with only 1 hour break alloted for lunch. The route is 5.+ kilometers. Masskara is one of the festivals with the shortest dance route. See the logic?

Since it started late, it also arrived at the plaza late, with a lot of photographers complaining of low light situations.

Security – I can still remember that ROTC and CAT students were tapped before to man the Araneta Streets to prevent the crowd from ging in the middle of the street. This year is just so stressful. I had my Photographer ID (which I also paid for PHP500) but unfortunately wasnt able to shoot a lot of photos as I have to help control the crowd getting in the middle of our dance group Brgy 17.

I cannot say anything about the Countdown to Charter Day streetparty and the Charter Day parade because I wasnt able to persoanll’y experience it this year. Though I heard a lot of good things about this year’s countdown party.

Bacolod is really blessed, because with all the threat of Super Typhoon Megi, The City of Smiles was spared from the rains. Drizzle would only start at night time for would only last for an hour or two. Heavy rains only started to pour yesterday October 19.

Overall the Bacolod Masskara Festival is a huge success. despite all the setbacks, I can still say that it was successful. And just like to good old times, I will never get tired of inviting friends to com over to my dear city and let them experience the fun and colors of the Masskara festival.