Tagosds.Org Discussion Board

with ms. lala m. ambray, the provincial tourism officer.




I was a judge at the 3rd Indak-Indak Ethnic Showdown and Street Dancing Contest in San Agustin last 27 August 2008. Participated in by 13 barangays armed with a storyline that paid homage to St. Augustine, the visual and aural spectacle was the highlight of the Kalumonan Festival that coincided with San Agustin’s patronal town fiesta celebration.

As expected, there were lots of drumbeating, dancing, running, and yelling. I sat there fascinated by the colorful costumes and the energy by which the participants imbued their performance. But all along, my mind was adrift because, come to think of it,

Tago has no festival of its own!


Admittedly, Tago lags culturally behind other towns of Surigao del Sur. Cagwait has Kaliguan Festival; Tandag has Tamda Festival which replaced the Ty-initiated Diwatahan; Cantilan has Sirong Festival; Carascal has Pahinungod; Bayabas has Gakit Festival, Hinatuan has Paladong Festival, etc.

For sure, Tago can do better than having another Sinulog clone. No, I don’t have qualms about ritual-based festivities, I just share the sentiment of one foreigner who said that in the Philippines, from Abra to Zamboanga, all festivals have people dancing in the streets amid drumbeats!

It’s all about branding. And street dancing is already equated to Sinulog and Ati-atihan that no matter how one tries, s/he will be a poor copy of the two festivals. And the last thing we want is for Tago to be “nothing but a second rate, trying hard copycat!”

We need something different but distinctly Tagon-on. It may not necessarily be a new concept, it could be something done by Tagon-ons in the past that if tweaked, is good for a renaissance. Or it maybe a resource-based festival involving various seafood, after all Tago is known for this delicious but uric acid-rich poison.

Here’s the idea: As early as March each year, the LGU will partner with fishermen and fishpond operators to go into crab, prawn and bangus fattening. In August, during the Araw ng Tago, these will be harvested for the seafood festival. In the first three years of the festival, the LGU will sponsor a seafood cooking contest by category---crabs, shrimps, shells, etc., to be participated in by chefs of hotels and resorts and housewives who have secret recipes from generations past. (Am sure the Department of Tourism can fund this.) For media mileage, food critic-cum-columnists (PDI’s Mickey Fenix and her ilks) and Mark Logan will be invited as judges. All the recipes---winning and non winning alike---shall be served at strategic places in the town plaza for people to buy and sample.

Crafted giant (think of Sinulog’s higantes) crabs, shrimps, prawns, lobsters, clams, shells, etc. will join Tagon-ons during the opening parade, all the way to the town plaza for the opening of the Seafood Festival.

The town plaza will be configured in such a way that booths selling raw and cooked seafood and dining tables are available. Visitors can have their crabs cooked or bangus grilled or bebe pasgang’ed and eaten right in the town plaza. In short, the town plaza becomes a humungous seafood court, wrapped in a haze of nice-smelling smoke! All this while a live band plays at the kiosk and the Pussycat Dolls do their thing on a giant screen near the town hall.

The Seafood Festival can even be mounted back-to-back with a local delicacy Festival. And maybe we can call it the “Tinagpaya Festival” where Tago can take a crack at the Guinness Book of World Records by having hundreds of people spooning a pudding as big as the town plaza’s rotunda.

Really, the possibilities are endless I'm going nuts!

But for now it’s all wishful thinking, reason why I dream of the day when our local officials will finally look at cultural advancement with the same eyes they use to look at infrastructure and sports development. More than culture being the widening of the mind and of the spirit (Jawaharlal Nehru), it is what helps us to work for the social betterment of all (Henry Ward Beecher).

(Note: If this idea is stolen, just remember that you read it here first.)

Tito Kamps ,hala na dayun pasi ugdahi !Seafoods festival dakan bale an theme nan tagon -on para nag iisa at naiiba sa lahat.wow!kun ikaw dili na sab katurog ,labaw na ako,gahuna huna na sab ako kun unhon ko ini pag uli .Permi lang ako ini behind kuman.Sana maka uli puhon .Bi -biton an batus,may mabughat gayud.

GO...GO...GO, K_SPY. WHAT A GOOD IDEA. YOU MADE TAGO MORE PROUD IF THIS PLAN WILL BECOME A REALITY. SA SURIGAO DEL SUR WA PAY GAYUD MAKALUPOS NAN MGA IDEAS NI K_SPY, DI GAUD DAG-UN AN TAGON-ON BSKAN HAIN DAPIT!!!

SIBULING wrote:Sana maka uli puhon .Bit-biton an batus,may mabughat gayud.

kabaka mo iton bughat, talimughat day katapat nan iton! arangi sa umbay.

ofelia wrote:GO...GO...GO, K_SPY. WHAT A GOOD IDEA. YOU MADE TAGO MORE PROUD IF THIS PLAN WILL BECOME A REALITY. SA SURIGAO DEL SUR WA PAY GAYUD MAKALUPOS NAN MGA IDEAS NI K_SPY, DI GAUD DAG-UN AN TAGON-ON BSKAN HAIN DAPIT!!!

ofelia,

saba mo kay kilatan kay kita.

kay himuon sa na constest an seafood higantes, laktud mo entra kaw para ikaw dayon an ato representative sa purok tambis, amo? ay, baya-baya bibuhin dan nan tago, yanggurihanok lugar iton mga kayangkas astan mga kuyampi.

cordapya wrote:
GRRREATT IDEA sold-out ako - K-Spy Sakto kaw K-Spy, " GO ORIG "(original) kita.

cordaps,

thanks. saba mo kay paningkamutan ta ini na mahitabo next year para may rason gayud niyo na manguli.

and if not, you still have the search for mutya ng tago as inspiration to come home.

dalia na spy ,kay excitedi na gayud ako na yagpamati nan ini na mga kalihukan.UNO LANG PAReHO DA SA LAGI KITA, NA IGO DA,ANAY KUN KITAY YANGASAPIAN SA UNA DA INI YAHITABO,DI NA KITA MANSAGAD PA AMO?Hala lang, kay ato da utrohan pag sabot c Cong.Pichay,uno na lang an ato miss tago na orig na c mana cordaps iya sa ..... joke da mana.Ay -ay bagan ato ini b/p hataasi ,cge lang kay sugod kuman magpalit na kami nan cholesterol off sa costo,para dili kita mga hal id.An ako dakan tambal sa bughat an ako problemahun.