The rich culture, heritage and artistry of Mindanao and Palawan will be on the spotlight as the Philippines will host the first ever Budayaw: The BIMP-EAGA Festival of Culture and the Arts, Sept. 20 to 24, in General Santos City.
BIMP-EAGA stands for Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines-East Asean Growth Area.
The festival will be mounted by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), Mindanao Development Authority, Department of Tourism Region XII, city government of General Santos, provincial government of Sarangani, Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, and Philippine Information Agency. Budayaw will showcase the diversity of creative expressions of cultural masters and artists in the four countries that comprise BIMP-EAGA. It will also raise awareness and foster appreciation of the landscapes, lifescapes and aspirations of peoples of the region.
Lectures, workshops
The festival will feature different lectures, workshops, performances, shows, exhibit and other activities and events, which will also foster understanding and solidarity among the multicultural populations of the BIMP-EAGA.
During the five-day festival, visitors can view iconic landscapes and cultural markers of the BIMP-EAGA in an interactive exhibit, which will be accompanied by lectures and fora to discuss the tensions of tradition and modernity embedded in the images.
A specially designed pavilion will be put up, serving as the shared domain of invited master weavers, who will show visitors how context shapes mastery of techniques over our natural resources.
Visitors will also experience the beauty of indigenous music, with performances using native musical instruments such as gongs, bamboo instruments, lutes and plucked-string instruments. Performing arts groups will showcase the best of contemporary theater, dance and music highlighting the threats and triumphs of communities on the road to peace, development and resilience.
Visual artists also will also display outdoor installations as well as other works.
To make the Budayaw experience more immersive, there will be special tour packages for tourists to explore the richness of Mindanao culture as well as its touristic destinations.
Budayaw will train the spotlight on the beauty of Mindanao.
Call Adelina M. Suemith, head of the BIMP-EAGA Socio-cultural Development Working Group and chief of the NCCA Program Monitoring and Evaluation Division, at 5272192 local 601.
