{"id":266267,"date":"2020-08-24T05:33:32","date_gmt":"2020-08-24T09:33:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=266267"},"modified":"2020-08-24T05:33:32","modified_gmt":"2020-08-24T09:33:32","slug":"sf-bay-areas-biggest-2-day-filam-festival-draws-global-audience-in-first-virtual-celebration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/08\/24\/sf-bay-areas-biggest-2-day-filam-festival-draws-global-audience-in-first-virtual-celebration\/","title":{"rendered":"SF Bay Area\u2019s biggest 2-day FilAm festival draws global audience in first virtual celebration"},"content":{"rendered":"
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This year\u2019s theme,\u00a0One Community: United in Hope and Healing, emphasizes the value of human connection and seeks to instill joy and positivity in these trying times. (Photo: ABS-CBN)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The two-day\u00a02020 Pistahan Virtual Parade and Festival<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0got over 47,000 viewers from all over the world including the U.S., Philippines, Canada, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.\u00a0 The celebration of Filipino culture and cuisine was streamed on\u00a0Facebook<\/a>,\u00a0YouTube<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Kumu<\/a>.
\nFor the last 26 years, Pistahan blossomed to be one of the largest Filipino cultural celebrations in the country held annually at the iconic Yerba Buena Gardens in SOMA Pilipinas Filipino Cultural Heritage District in the heart of San Francisco.\u00a0Al Perez, president of the Filipino American Arts Exposition (FAAE)<\/strong>\u00a0that organizes the annual Pistahan, explains how bringing the festival online opened many opportunities.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe reimagined Pistahan as a way to create space for visibility and representation and to create new experiences for discovery, connection and positivity for festival attendees,\u201d says Perez.<\/p>\n

Going International while Remaining Local<\/strong><\/p>\n

Whereas Pistahan festivals in the past were only seen by people who lived in and around the Bay Area, this year\u2019s virtual format allowed organizers to expand their outreach, invite international guest speakers, and reach a global audience.<\/p>\n

Pistahan this year teamed up with Filipino livestreaming super app\u00a0Kumu<\/a>\u00a0in the livestreaming platform\u2019s first-ever festival collaboration in the United States. Piloting several digital festivities together \u2014 including a talent search campaign that enabled Kumu contestants to earn over 2 million Philippine pesos \u2014 the collaboration resulted in nearly half of all viewers joining the Pistahan Festival livestream tuning in from Kumu.<\/p>\n

According to Perez, \u201cThis year, we have guest participants from Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore, India, Italy, Switzerland, Portugal, Germany, Argentina, Canada, Mexico, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, various corners of the Philippines: Manila, Quezon City, Pampanga, Nueva Ecija and Isabela in the Ilocos Region, and other countries.\u201d<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s theme,\u00a0One Community: United in Hope and Healing<\/strong>, emphasizes the value of human connection and seeks to instill joy and positivity in these trying times.<\/p>\n

Hope and healing can take on so many forms like food, art, and entertainment, and even in these areas, an international presence was felt.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Pop-Up Food Court<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0supported Filipino restaurants around the world. Attendees could pre-order a special Pistahan meal plate for takeout and enjoy the flavors of the Philippines at home. Pistahan\u2019s online directory featured various restaurants from Northern and Southern California, Pacific Western U.S., Central and Eastern U.S., Canada, the Philippines, and Europe.<\/p>\n

Some of the highlights of the two-day festival were the back-to-back\u00a0TFC show<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0that featured Canada-based multi-awarded singer\/songwriter\u00a0Joey Albert<\/a>\u00a0and Bay Area native\u00a0Yzabel Cabral<\/a>; and\u00a0myxTape\u2019s<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0Hella Fresh<\/strong>\u00a0act with international singer\/songwriter\u00a0Inigo Pascual<\/a>\u00a0and R&B\/neo-soul artist\u00a0Kiana V<\/a>,both based in the Philippines; and rapper\/scientist\u00a0Ruby Ibarra<\/a>, musical artist\u00a0Gabe Bondoc<\/a>, and island soul musical duo\u00a0CRSB<\/a>\u00a0who are all local to the Bay.<\/p>\n

Cultivating Goodwill for the Community<\/strong><\/p>\n

Even with a rich presence of guest speakers, performers, and audiences from other countries, Pistahan maintained their local partnership with Bay Area non-profits\u00a0West Bay Pilipino Multi-Service Center<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0United Playaz<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe are always so happy to be included as partners in the annual Pistahan celebration. This is a great way for Pistahan to give back to the community that it calls home through our organizations,\u201d says\u00a0United Playaz Founder and Executive Director Rudy Corpuz<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Since Pistahan moved to a virtual platform, festival attendees were encouraged to contribute to the fundraising via the\u00a0donation portal<\/a>\u00a0on the event website. Funds support ongoing projects of West Bay and United Playaz, and programs that sustain Filipino values and cultural traditions by FAAE.<\/p>\n

Corpuz says donations \u201chelp with costs related to supporting families through the COVID crisis. We have staffed a local food distribution and given out over 19,000 bags of groceries. We have been responding to the recent surge in violence and have been supporting families as they bury loved ones or seek services and resources they need to support their healing.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to\u00a0West Bay Pilipino Multi-Service Center Executive Director Carla Laurel<\/strong>, \u201cWe are also in partnership with UP doing in-person support for summer and the school year for the most vulnerable, including recent Filipino immigrant youth that live in single room occupancies and can\u2019t virtually learn from home because they share a room with their parents and siblings.\u201d<\/p>\n

The social benefits Pistahan provides for the community are evident. Laurel says that \u201cPistahan has always remembered, included, and supported West Bay and UP, so we can continue to support the vulnerable Filipino families that live in SoMa.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Future of Pistahan<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe way that Pistahan organizers were able to pivot to a virtual celebration was so awesome and creative and clever,\u201d enthuses Corpuz. \u00a0\u201cWe felt like our community was absolutely global as we watched the weekend festivities and look forward to how these changes can be incorporated into the future,\u201d he adds.
\nABS-CBN Managing Director for North and Latin America Jun Del Rosario<\/strong>\u00a0applauds the efforts of the organizers, saying that \u201ccontinuing this great Filipino American tradition means we believe in a future, we hope for a future, and we want to play a meaningful role in that future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perez says \u201cThere was no playbook on how to do a virtual festival. So, in true Pinoy bayanihan (Filipino collaborative effort) spirit, the team pooled our ideas, energy, and resources together, and we figured out a way to carry the Pistahan tradition forward. It was a result of a lot of love, compassion, creativity, and hard work, combined with inspiring guest speakers, talented performing artists, and amazing community partners. We are truly grateful for everyone’s support!\u201d<\/p>\n

ABS-CBN Global COO Olivia De Jesus<\/strong>\u00a0echoes the importance of the partnership between Pistahan organizer\u00a0FAAE<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0TFC<\/strong>. It helps to \u201cremind ourselves that the Galing Filipino (greatness of the Filipino) continues to live and grow through good or bad, through thick or thin, through sunshine or storm.\u201d<\/p>\n

The two-day experience provided the organizers the foundation, skillset, and experience to share Pistahan with an international audience. The team will continue to adapt, evolve, and be resilient. As Perez says, \u201cThat is the Pinoy way and it is inherently part of the DNA of Filipinos.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The two-day\u00a02020 Pistahan Virtual Parade and Festival\u00a0got over 47,000 viewers from all over the world including the U.S., Philippines, Canada, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":266268,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-266267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","category-entertainment-ph","mauthors-abs-cbn"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266267"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266267\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":266269,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266267\/revisions\/266269"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}