Pasalubong Festival 2012

My body is sore, I want my voice back, I have a stuffy nose and a mountain of schoolwork that should be finished tonight, or before day break tomorrow. But before I write speeches, journals and a kick-arse formal report on an experiment, I would like to share yesterday's highlights.

Kalayaan Residence Hall, my dorm in UP, held a Pasalubong Festival (Pasa Fest, in short) yesterday where dormers brought the specialties of their regions. Pasalubong is a Filipino term for a traditional homecoming gift, so everything yesterday was given for free to everyone, dormers and visitors alike.

The Pasa Fest program included a fashion show that showcased the different cultural costumes of every region in the Philippines. There were superhero costumes that showed the creativity students from all across the Philippines. A cultural show was also presented by each group of regions, i.e. Northern Luzon, Southern Luzon, Visayas and Minadanao. Each region also prepared a booth where they shared all their special goodies and delicacies. And after the job is done, the dormers partied all night with tuba (coconut wine) courtesy of Region 8. (That's why my body is sore. Tsk.)

I want to congratulate each and everyone who participated in this year's Pasa Fest. The preparations might have been stressful not just to the body but also the wallets but I can say that the Pasa Fest was successful. Everybody did a great job and I am sure the visitors were not disappointed. I enjoyed the whole event myself, even more if only the guests came to our booth in separate waves instead of a flash flood.

The costumes, cultural shows and booths were all competitions and here are the winners of this year's Pasalubong Festival!

Congratulations to the Bicol Region (Region 5) for winning both the cultural and superhero costume contests.

Region 5's Cultural Costume (c) Enzo De los Reyes

Superheroes Whale-shark Boy and Lava Girl (c) Feona Imperial

I also want to congratulate Visayas (Regions 6, 7 and 8) for winning in the cultural show. (I think I need a picture for this one.) Good job, guys!

And best of all, the Region 6 booth, our booth, was awarded as the best booth of the Pasa Fest. Joop Garcia was in charge of the booth preparations and I am so pleased, as the rest of the group, to finally see the final product welcoming every guest. A great big thanks to all guests and dormers who visited our booth and finished all our pasalubong! Replenishing all our displays every moment as waves of people came to our booth was a routine yet exhausting job, but it was all worth it.

Our booth, before the attack of the guests. Booth design courtesy of Joop Garcia (left most).

Before I end, I would like to show off the costumes we made and everything else that is Pasa Fest.

Cultural Costume with models Dana Pongan and  Nikko Yao (c) Enzo De los Reyes

superheroes Babaylan and Bulalakaw (c) Feona Imperial

The costumes were made through the collaboration of the great minds of Jap Zoluaga, Dana Pongan and Janine Gascon and the hard labor by the rest of the Region 6 team. Cheers to the dakilang assistants Faith Marcelino, Jap Zoluaga and yours truly for assisting the models!

The mask which I painted.

We made masks for the booth, and I made this one! I am so proud of myself. Ha!

At the end of the day, I would like to go back yesterday not as a part of the Pasa Fest but as a guest who enjoys travelling around the Philippines in a single afternoon. Oh how I wish.

I think I will create a new post for other pictures and more chismax, if I have time. For this one, I would like to acknowledge Feona Imperial and Enzo De los Reyes from whom I grabbed pictures. Thank you very much!

By the way, click on the links above to see the other pictures. Enjoy!