10 PHOTOGRAPHS ABOUT THE 2016 PASALAMAT FESTIVAL

Pasalamat Festival, a  Rio de Janeiro inspired festival adapted in the Philippine context is held every first week of May in the La Carlota City, Negros Occidental Philippines.

For many years now, I always attend this festival because the City would always invite me as one of their judges in various categories relative to the highlight of the festival which is the grand dance parade.

While I was so busy doing my task of being a judge each year, I still managed to take some which I would like to share with you.

Let me bring you to the  Pasalamat Festival of La Carlota City with these photographs.

1.  Peacock inspired costume. This was taken early during the dance parade  when the heat was still very strong, so I can understand why these dancers can barely smile.

2. Swan and Pineapples. Swan inspired costume for the male dancers with the female dancers on their pineapple inspired headdresses (Elementary category).

3. Butterflies and Sunflowers. (Elementary Category )Male  dancers with beautiful butterfly wings and female dances in sunflower headdresses flirtatiously dance  to the rhythm created by the drum beaters of  La Carlota City.

4. Tribu San Miguel. One of the strongest contender for this year is the San Miguel Tribe on their hot red costume. You should see them performing live but I promise next year I will be uploading videos on all of my festival related posts.

5. Heavy and humongous costumes. I can only imagine how heavy is this sunflower inspired costume. They look so fab on the streets.

6. Metallic drumbeaters.Tribu Balabag comes metallic this year. One of the best features of Pasalamat Festival is its sounds and rhythm made by the drum beaters of each competing tribe.

7. Kids drumbeaters. It’s quite amazing to note that even the elementary students can make the audience dance with their sounds.

8. Beauty atop the float. Each competing tribes has their muses paraded on a beautiful float.

9.Dancing in the rain. We were surprised by the sudden drop of heavy rain during the parade. But as the saying goes, “The show must go on…”

10. Wet and Sexy. Sexy tops are very common amongst the female dancers at the Pasalamat festival.See how these girls having fun during the dance parade.

How to get there:

La Carlota City, Negros Occidental can be reached an hour from Bacolod City and a little more than 1 hour by public transportation. From Libertad Market in Bacolod City, you can take the jeepney to La Carlota City.