TAGO...IN SEARCH OF A FESTIVAL

[kampanaryo_spy]

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.)

[SIBULING]

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.

[cordapya]

GRRREATT IDEA sold-out ako - K-Spy kon sa iningles pa lugar "TASTE OF TAGO". abay nan iton mga Ati-atihan style kay ma-alingog-ngog. (wai lugar tigol na gayod si Cordapya). Balitaw, gamay da an Tago. tambor (drum) sa Siti mabati sa Duma-duma and Bungtod. Sakto kaw K-Spy, " GO ORIG "(original) kita.

[ofelia]

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!!!

[toyang]

K-spy,

Sakto kay agaw yaon. Tinagpaya or Olige Festival, any will do basta para sa kauswagan nan ato yutang natawhan.
haraw agaw mag come to pass yaon na mga plano.

[badung]

K_spy,

Sorry, K_spy, kuman pa nako ini kabasahi. It's strange that we were talking about having a festival on the same day. I have not read your post above when I wrote something in another thread. That was an original idea. I was just thinking about having something that the entire community can participate in. A friend of mine had just told me about the "Kadayawan Festival" of Davao.

Really, am sorry. I had no idea that you had just talked about festival in another thread. Sorry, by all means I will delete my post.

[kampanaryo_spy]

bads,

sus, kabaka mo pan papas aton paga pangpatik mo, okihi da. it only goes to show that we're in a parallel universe.

[kampanaryo_spy]

sibs, cordaps, ofelia, and toyang,

ay, ay yasapi-an pa lang ako, pangakuhan ko sa ini tanan. galing kay manginahanglan sa lagi ini nan budget, tapos kapuyan sa lagi ako mag bender nan ideya naman kutob da kan lang kita sa pag sugyot. haw dakpon nan yangatungdanan madayaw, haw dili, na unoy ako.

kibale ga buod.

[kampanaryo_spy]

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

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

[kampanaryo_spy]

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.

[kampanaryo_spy]

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.

[tagalawud]

K-SPY,

Iton dasa gani pagkadayawir na plano mo,sigurado ako na tanan mga tagon-on,hasta ato mga silingan mooyon gayud hasta mo suporta nan ini na kalingawan.
Madayaw gayud na may ato isab festival.Ini ako suggestion bagan kay madayaw pamation kon an ngan nan ato festival ay ***OLIGIHAN FESTIVAL***

[SIBULING]

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.

[cordapya]

K-Spy, mga pila sa baya an budget - more or less? WOW! sapi-an baya Balitaw an ako bo-ot ipasabot na sin-o sa na "Poncius Pilate" an ato mahangyo? Kay magpakimalooy da kita paghangyo . Na-nga sa na an iban na lungsod mahimo, kita dili? Hain sa nato makoha an budget, sa National ? kon sa local? Hala K-Spy PM-e taraw ako, Long.

[kampanaryo_spy]

Cordaps,

Actually it’s not the budget that is much of a problem here; it’s the supply of the seafood!

More than 90% of fishponds here have dried up and most of those that haven’t are into bangus culture. In short, we’re now dependent, like in the olden days, on the sea and the river for our favorite poisons like crabs, shrimps, etc.

Based on my talk with fishpond operators last year, June is their harvest month. This means additional expense for labor, feeds, and other overhead if instead they harvest in August for the Tinagpaya Festival. I don't think the fishpond operators are willing to do this.

This leaves us with crab gatherers as partners, which is good because their participation will provide the festival with social relevance. And having said that, the way to go is through captive crab culture in pens among Tago’s mangroves. For the record, Tito Fred Manzano had done this somewhere in Jubang and was quite successful, but he stopped when Tita Nene had a stroke late last year.

To go into this, we need funds. And this is where we need Tagon-on Big Brothers/Sisters as partner-investors. Let me explain. In March, we'll identify crab gatherers who will join the Tinagpaya Festival in August. To fatten crabs, each of this crab gatherer will be given an area by either the LGU or the owner of the marshland. The Tagon-on Big Brothers/Sisters will provide the project funds while the crab gatherers, the “sweat” or labor equity.

Tago LGU’s involvement includes: 1) computing the cost per crab fattening project for investors to study; 2) providing technical assistance to crab gatherers through the Office of the Municipal Agriculturist.

Inherent to the program is an investment recovery scheme for Tagon-on Big Brothers/Sisters. After the Tinagpaya Festival, net proceeds(gross sales minus original investment and expenses) will be divided between the investors and the crab gatherers based on a pre-agreed rate. Say, 60% will go to the crab gatherers and 40%, to the Big Brothers/Sisters.

Let’s just say that each crab fattening project involves a maximum of 100 crabs. If we have 100 crab gatherer-participants, then by August we have a total of 10,000 crabs, with each crab weighing a minimum of 1.5 kilos. Now, that’s what you call Tinagpaya!

As to other seafoods like prawns, shrimps, clams, and other shells, Tago will have them, through Divine Providence, on demand! Or maybe, the LGU can pass a legislation which prohibits the gathering of these seafoods a month prior to the festival. This way, supply is ensured.

Other festival expenses will not be that huge since we only have to contend with prizes for the seafood cooking contest and the crafted seafood higantes. As to the airfare and accommodation of judges and guests, I leave it to God to lead us to big hearted sponsors.

Cordaps, I really believe this is doable. What do you think?