The MassKara Festival (Hiligaynon: Pista sang MassKara, Filipino: Fiesta ng MassKara) is an annual festival with highlights held every fourth Sunday of October in Bacolod, Philippines.
The word “Masskara” is a portmanteau, coined by the late artist Ely Santiago, from mass (a multitude of people) and the Spanish word cara (face), thus forming MassKara (a multitude of faces). The word is also a pun on maskara, Filipino for “mask” (itself from Spanish máscara), since it’s a prominent feature of the festival, which is always adorned with smiling faces because it is called the city of smiles.
The festival first began in 1980 during a period of crisis. The province relied on sugar cane as its primary agricultural crop. The price of sugar was at an all-time low due to the introduction of sugar substitutes like high fructose corn syrup in the United States. This was the first Masskara Festival and a time of tragedy; on April 22 of that year, the inter-island vessel MV Don Juan, carrying many Negrenses, including those belonging to prominent families in Bacolod City, collided with the tanker Tacloban City and sank. An estimated 700 lives were lost in the tragedy.
In the midst of these tragic events, the city’s artists, local government, and civic groups decided to hold a festival of smiles, because the city at that time was also known as the City of Smiles. They reasoned that a festival was also a good opportunity to pull the residents out of the pervasive gloomy atmosphere brought by the Don Juan Tragedy. The initial festival was, therefore, a declaration by the people of the city that no matter how tough and bad the times were, Bacolod City was going to pull through, survive, and, in the end, triumph.
The mask motif of the festival has changed from masks influenced by native Filipinos to those influenced by the Carnival of Venice and the Rio Carnival. Earlier masks were hand-painted and adorned with feathers, flowers, and native beads, while contemporary masks feature plastic beads and sequins.
The festival features a street dance competition where people from all walks of life troop to the streets to see masked dancers gyrating to the rhythm of Latin musical beats in a display of mastery, gaiety, coordination, and stamina. Major activities include the MassKara Queen beauty pageant; carnivals; drum and bugle corps competitions; food festivals; sports events; musical concerts; agriculture-trade fairs; garden shows; and other special events organized every year.
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