"Abel-Iloko glimmers against odds, like the genuine Ilocano Spirit that is Globally Competitive."

 

The Viva Vigan Binatbatan Festival of the Arts is a week-long celebration to assist the local government's cultural tourism efforts. The famed Binatbatan Festival Celebration, as well as a street dance competition to promote Ilocano abel craft, are among the activities. The municipal administration encourages citizen participation by supporting the Save Vigan Ancestral Homes Associations Inc., which actively promotes the old town by conserving and protecting this cultural property. The participation of the Save Vigan Ancestral Home Associations in preserving, conserving, and decorating the historic ancestral houses during the street dancing festivals indicates the residents' engagement. During the Viva Vigan celebration, Biguenos who possess ancestral houses paint their homes with brightly colored abel cloth to support the native Abel Iloko goods. 

The city government also provides other festival attractions for the six-day festival to keep the momentum of the tourist attraction going year after year, such as the calesa parade, ramada or traditional games, comedia or stage drama, Santa Cruzan parade, abel fashion show and house decoration, singing contests and beauty pageants, and other exciting events. They can also take part in religious rites or attend exhibitions, horticultural displays, and commerce and culinary festivals.

Tourists may buy for souvenirs on local created crafts and attractive plants, as well as food delights like as "pipian," "sinanglao," "miki," salapusop, and other delicacies, at the Viva Vigan Food and Trade Fair. There are also contests for Carabao Painting and Pasagad Dressing. A homage to farmers and their beasts of burden, this is a parade showcasing the bounty of land and water, as well as the carabao pageantry.

The Viva Vigan Festival of Arts takes place during the first week of May. The Save Vigan Ancestral Homes Association, Inc. (SVAHAI) established it in 1993 to raise awareness of the historic town's importance in the hopes of strengthening determination to conserve and maintain this historical site. The arts festival has been effective in drawing attention to Vigan's ancestral houses for the past sixteen years. The festival has also succeeded in promoting other parts of Vigan with the assistance of national and municipal agencies, as well as media, arts, and non-governmental supporters. Its popularity has even boosted the whole northern tourism sector, bringing in tens of thousands of local and foreign travelers eager to explore and enjoy a "northern experience."

The week-long Viva Vigan celebrations are both religious and secular in nature. It all begins on May 1st, when the entire country celebrates Labor Day and Vigan recalls its own Isabelo de los Reyes, who created the country's first labor federation. On this day, the Catholic faithful also remembers St. Joseph, the patron saint of laborers. The Binatbatan Festival activities, which feature a street dance competition, follow the first-day observance. Binatbatan dance is linked to the abel Iloco craft of Vigan. The dance shows the beating of cotton pods with bamboo sticks to liberate the cotton fluff known as batbat from its seed. This event began in 2002 to highlight this historic weaving technique, which is thought to precede the advent of the Spaniards.

On May 3rd, the Feast of Apo Sto. Cristo Milagroso At the Simbaan a Bassit, Sto. Cristo Milagroso is commemorated with a mass. This is a very important religious holiday in Vigan since the Apo is claimed to have saved the city on several occasions. The Karbo Festival, which debuted in 2005, is another prominent festival within the Viva Vigan festival. It aims to highlight the people who work in Vigan's agriculture business and their contributions. The festival's name is derived from the terms carabao, a Philippine water buffalo used for farming, and bokel, which means "seeds." On this day, colorfully painted carabaos are paraded, and youngsters display their seed-based artistic masterpieces.

Visitors are also encouraged to include the calesa parade, ramada or traditional games, comedia or stage drama, Santa Cruzan parade, abel fashion show and house decoration, singing contests and beauty pageants, and other exciting events such as the Amazing Heritage Race in their six-day Viva Vigan experience. They can also take part in religious rites or attend exhibitions, horticultural displays, and commerce and culinary festivals.

References:

🐃https://tinyurl.com/viganph Retrieved on May 6, 2022

🐃https://tinyurl.com/binatbatan Retrieved on May 6, 2022