BACOLOD CITY: Fun, Festive and Fascinating

Dubbed as the City of Smiles, Bacolod City is the largest and highly urbanized city on the island of Negros. The city was famous for celebrating its Masskara Festival, an event that puts them on the map for the best festivals in the country. 

The city has two pronounced seasons just like the other neighboring cities around the country. The rainy season starts from May to January of the year with heavy rains occurring in August and September, while the dry season starts from February until the last week of April. Bacolod City is named as the capital city of Negros Occidental and is considered as one of the highly urbanized cities around the region.

The city serves as the gateway to the rich cities and towns of the province. Visitors and tourists can easily take for business and leisure in the city because of the modern in-land transportation. The people of Bacolod used Hiligaynon which also referred to Ilonggo after the neighboring province of Iloilo as a means of communication, while the rest generally speak Filipino- the national language and the others Cebuano. The English language was also was used by some Bacolenos.

How to get there

By Air:

With the newly installed New Bacolod-Silay airport that is located 15 kilometers northeast of the city, the airport is capable of handling all weather and landing operations. Philippine Airlines, The Cebu Pacific, and Air Philippines are among the top airline companies that will bring tourists and visitors to the city of smiles.

By Land:

With the two main national roads that are located in the city, Lacson Street to the north and Araneta to the south, accessibility toward this road going to the city was very good because of good traffic plan and no congestion of vehicles that creates a traffic jam that usually creates a major problem of highly-graded cities around the country.

By Sea:

The port of Bacolod is the major door to enter the city of Masskara. Located at the reclamation area, ships and small fast craft just like Wessum Express and Sea Angels have daily trips to Iloilo City and it is approximately 45 minutes of travel from the Port of Iloilo and 18 hours from Manila.

Tourist Attraction

The Masskarra Festival is one of the major tourist attractions of Bacolod City, celebrated every year to commemorate the cityhood of Bacolod City. Merrymaking and dance street competition are among the activities being held during the event. Another major event that is celebrated every year in Bacolod City is the Panaad sa Negros, this time it involves all the cities and municipalities under the banner of Negros Occidental, it happens every April and late May or after the Holy Week. Panaad Park is the main venue of this famous festival. The Panaad Park also caters for some big events in sports just like the 23rd Southeast Asian Games 2005, 2006 Asian Football Qualifiers, and our local version of the Olympics, the Palarong Pambansa.

Delicacies and Products

The Bacolod City is not only famous for its festivals, but the city of smile was also renowned for its native delicacies. The piaya is one of the top homemade delicacies of the city, enriched with flour and brown sugar, coated with sesame seeds that provide a sweet savor for the local and foreign tourists. The BongBong’s Piaya and Barquillos is one of the best producers of this product and named the No. 1 Pasalubong Center in the city. Another alluring product that Bacolod can also be proud of is the “Chicken Inasal”. The unique taste of chicken that being grilled in the stick can be found in any streets of the city. Chicken House, Mang Inasal, and the famed Manokan Country are the best place to stop to find this food product.

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Bacolod Masskara Festival: An example of Filipino Resiliency.

The City of Smiles, Bacolod City, will once again pulsate with the latin beat and throb with the colorful and fun spirit of the Masskara Festival this October 2010. The highlights of the Masskara 2010 will be on October 1 to 19 and will feature a competition among various dance groups clad in very colorful costumes.

MassKara is coined from two words: Mass, which means “many, or multitude,” and Kara, a Spanish word for “face,” thus MassKara is a mass or multitude of smiling faces.

The festival first began in 1980 during a period of crisis. The province relied on sugar cane as its primary agricultural crop, and 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 State. It was also a time of tragedy; on April 22 of that year, the inter-island vessel 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. 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 is going to pull through, survive, and in the end, triumph.

The festival features a street dance competition where people from all walks of life troop to the streets to see colorfully-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 ad-hoc every year.