{"id":272927,"date":"2020-10-25T23:29:24","date_gmt":"2020-10-26T03:29:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=272927"},"modified":"2020-10-25T23:29:24","modified_gmt":"2020-10-26T03:29:24","slug":"bacolodnons-mark-masskara-festival-with-virtual-events","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/10\/25\/bacolodnons-mark-masskara-festival-with-virtual-events\/","title":{"rendered":"Bacolodnons mark MassKara Festival with virtual events"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: none; overflow: hidden;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fcelebratemasskara%2Fposts%2F3146957382074821&amp;show_text=true&amp;width=552&amp;height=497&amp;appId\" width=\"552\" height=\"497\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><strong>BACOLOD CITY<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 The main streets of Bacolod are usually full of life and energy on the fourth Sunday of October as its people, along with thousands of visitors from across the world, celebrate the highlights of the MassKara Festival.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">The coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic changed all that. This year, the public plaza, considered as the hub of the much-anticipated street dance competition, only had a few people sitting on benches and roaming around to while away a quiet Sunday afternoon.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\u201cCovid-19 has changed everything for us. This is the day that MassKara should have been celebrated with the highlights. Can you imagine for 40 straight years we had the MassKara and it is only now that the festival has been suspended,\u201d a wistful Mayor Evelio Leonardia said in a radio interview.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Last Sept. 21, Leonardia issued Executive Order 62 suspending this year\u2019s festival\u2019s public celebration and all related revelries or activities to comply with the health and safety protocols in stemming the local spread of infections.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">As the city continues to fight the virus, Bacolodnons have\u00a0 found ways to continue the revelry on MassKara\u2019s 41st\u00a0 year virtually.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">On Sunday afternoon, a celebration dubbed \u201cBato\u2019, Bacolod, bato\u2019!\u201d (Fight on, Bacolod, fight on!), featuring the festival\u2019s champion performances, was aired on SkyCable Channel 53.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\u201cI talked to Eli Tajanlangit of the (Silver MassKara Festival Organization). I requested them to show the highlights of the previous MassKara festivals,\u201d Leonardia said.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">On social media, some festival-related events also went viral in the past weeks.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">A competition called \u201cMassKara Pet Fashion Show 2020\u201d was participated by the city\u2019s cutest dogs dressed up along with their fur parents in colorful MassKara ensembles.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Shared by thousands of netizens, a medley dance video of the Artians Cheerdance Squad has also brought on the festival vibes as they performed along the iconic songs associated with the MassKara in the past four decades.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Through the Masskara Medley 2020 Project, the dancers sent a message of hope from Bacolod, also known as the City of Smiles.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\u201c(The year) 2020 has been a roller coaster of emotions, but there is still hope\u2026We may be putting on a different mask for MassKara season this year, but just like how the festival was born during a time of crisis, we are reminded that there are still endless reasons to smile,\u201d their post on their official Facebook page said.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Indeed, as President Rodrigo Duterte himself has said: \u201cThe festival tells an inspiring story of the Filipinos&#8217; resilience.\u201d<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\u201cIt is proof that despite the many struggles we face, we can overcome any adversity through cooperation and perseverance,\u201d said the President, who has witnessed the MassKara Festival three times since he was elected to Malaca\u00f1ang in 2016.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">In December 2018, Duterte signed Republic Act 11146 which declares June 18, 1938 as the Charter Day Bacolod, and also provides that the highlights of the MassKara Festival will be held on the fourth Sunday of October.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BACOLOD CITY\u00a0\u2013 The main streets of Bacolod are usually full of life and energy on the fourth Sunday of October &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":272929,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[79],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-272927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-travel","mauthors-nanette-guadalquiver","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272927","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=272927"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272927\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":272931,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272927\/revisions\/272931"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}