Hundred Islands Festival
The most anticipated and largest crowd-drawer event in Alaminos City. An annual festival that combines sports, adventure and agro-tourism aimed at enhancing environmental and cultural awareness. This is a unique event that can only be experienced in Alaminos City. Rolled into one – you can enjoy the summer youth camp, images of hundred islands, adventure race and hundred islands tour. Lavish celebration marks the Hundred Islands Festival. String of athletic and challenging pursuits like sky diving competition, skills Olympics or island adventure race are among the activities that attract thrill-seeking foreign and local tourists. The best aqua products are exhibited in the agro-trade fair while seafood cuisine takes center stage as restaurants showcase their best and most sumptuous menus. The most awaited spectacle is the fluvial parade, showcasing floats made of shells and other fabulous marine themes. Magnificent designs only get better at each competition. The streets come alive with the sound and beats of the street dancing contests alongside a drum and lyre competition by different schools and an exhibition by a professional drum and bugle group. Night glitters with the charming smiles from beautiful muses vying for the Hundred Island maiden pageant. Young crowd flock the concerts featuring famous bands or celebrities.
Adventure Hundred Islands
The Hundred Islands Adventure is an annual event primarily catered to the tourists and visitors who take part in some of most breathtaking activities, fun and exciting adventures and unforgettable experiences such as para-sailing (400-600 above sea level), bird and bat viewing, banana boat ride, sailing, Tyrolean traverse, spelunking, kayaking, camping, snorkeling, scuba diving, jet ski, fishing, picnic, trekking and a lot more.
(Click images for a larger view)
City and Barangay FiestasFestive, colorful and vibrant. Alaminos City celebrates a traditional Filipino fiesta. The weeklong celebration usually starts on March 17 with events and fairs decorating the whole city before, during and after the actual date of the fiesta. Alaminians and visitors are treated to a galore of concerts by famous artists, beauty pageants and sports competitions. Food and product fairs spice up the city fiesta showcasing the people’s ingenuity and various products of Alaminos City. The action and spectacle continue until the wee hours of the evening highlighted by a fireworks display. Fiesta is incomplete without the carnival rides like the Ferris Wheel or Merry-Go-Round. Children especially enjoy going to the circus, chomping and gulping treats as their eyes silently gape at trapeze artists, magicians and sword eaters. A barangay fiesta in Alaminos City is a scaled version of the city fiesta. Local bands take the place of famous recording groups. Pageants for ladies and gays and sometimes mini-fashion shows are staged in the evening. Basketball competition is a popular day event. Host families usually prepare sumptuous food intended for guests and friends from neighboring barangays.
Moro-moro / Zarzuela
Traditional musical plays center on the rich history or colorful origin of the place, thus is usually set before or during Spanish regime. Legends are sometimes given the stage, reintroducing to the people a part of their heritage. Zarzuela is often presented in different festivals and barangay fiestas. Contemporary versions are staged in big celebrations brought about by the remarkable creativity of local literary artists. Most use the vernacular dialect but are now more inclined to use Filipino, to reach more audiences. The youth are often the active participants in these undertakings. The adults readily share the art of living up the heart of the script of the musical play on stage to these young flames.
Passion of the Christ (Senakulo)
Senakulo is the most awaited spectacle during Lenten season in Alaminos City. It is a reenactment and solemn parade of Christ’s passion and death. Households near the church wait eagerly for the visit of acting Roman soldiers with their menacingly painted masks and armors, pounding on doors to search for Jesus. At the day of Christ’s suffering and death, people gather at the church to witness the reenactment, the judgment of Jesus, the Crucifixion and His Seven Last Words. The routine of the reenactment has not changed, but its presentation is infused with a fresh flavor to reach the modern-world absorbed consciousness of the new generation.
Flores De Mayo (Flowers of May)
The traditional praying of the Novena for nine days, in honor of the Virgin Mary ushers in the festive Santacruzan in celebration of the Holy Cross. The loveliest ladies in the city are selected to participate in the late afternoon procession that often stretches into evening. They wear elegantly designed and exquisitely embellished gowns, portraying characters in the story of Queen Elena’s search and eventual find of the Holy Cross. Every barangay is well represented providing different characters like the queens and other important biblical women like Esther, Judith, Veronica, and the Queen of Sheba. Others opt for the Marian characters like Reyna de las Flores (queen of flowers) and Reyna de las Estrellas (queen of stars). Other focus on the representation of moral characters like Reyna Hustisya (Justice; in the earlier celebrations, she wears a blindfold), Esperanza (the representation of hope), and Caridad (symbolizing charity and love), and still others, enjoy the combination of any or all of the three.
Talaba Festival
The talaba (oyster) is among+ the gems of seafood cooking in many of the city’s households, especially those near the sea. A festival is held to promote the oyster’s succulent taste. People cheer contestants in an oyster-shucking contest and for their creative presentations of various delectable dishes in a cooking showdown.
Agri-Trade Fair
The annual Agri Trade fair showcases the best of Alaminos City products as a result of the Agri-Volution, Ocho-Ocho and BIPSA programs of the city government. Exhibited delicacies are the finest in the city, like the irresistible Alaminos longganisa, the grilled bangus belly, the unique ‘binungey’ and oyster nuggets.
Alaminos.gov.ph
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