|
Once
again, the Viva Vigan Binatbatan Festival of the Arts
becomes the center of attraction of this year’s summer
season in
Northern Luzon as thousands of tourists and visitors flocked to the
city to watch the exciting events during the six-day
feast. Beyond the color and the touristic thrills,
however, the substantial focus of the event was an age-old
craft for which people far and wide have admired Ilocanos
for—the well-known Abel Iluko products, produced with
traditional means for processing cotton and weaving the
strands into strong and colorful blankets and bed sheets,
table runners and wall decors, among others.
In some
households, the Abel, if given as a wedding gift, is
considered an heirloom, surviving decades and passed on to
future generations.
About
4,000 expectators both from foreign countries and local
visitors thronged streets of the city to watch the
Binatbatan Street Dancing festival on Friday afternoon.
It was the
seventh Binatbatan Festival and 16th Viva Vigan Festival
of the Arts. The Binatbatan fest was launched in May 2002,
in honor of the well-known Abel Iluko products from the
city, while the Viva Vigan Fest of the Art was also
launched in May 1993 to promote and advocate the city’s
unique historical arts and cultures.
City Mayor
Eva Marie Singson Medina described the Binatbatan street
dancing festival as very significant in the celebration of
the annual Viva Vigan fest because it depicts the long
tradition by which the Ilocanos beat the cotton pods with
two bamboo sticks to separate the seeds from the fluff
called batbat, which is just the first process in making
the Abel Iluko (woven cloth).
Binatbatan
is an expression, a tribute to the Ilocanos of the old.
Binatbatan is an Ilocano dance depicting the first step in
the Abel-Iluko weaving process. “The street dancing honors
the Abel-Iluko, a traditional craft of Vigan that has
sustained its economy from the pre- Spanish period to the
present,” the mayor explained.
A total of
12 groups from three categories—elementary, high school
and open categories—competed in the “binatbatan”
street-dancing contest that was won by the following:
Vigan’s Nagsangalan Elementary School for the elementary
level; the Ilocos Sur National High School and the Teodoro
Hernaez Memorial High School which were tied in the high
school level; and the University of Northern Philippines
for the open category.
The
six-day festival of the arts was formally opened on
Thursday to coincide with the celebration of Labor Day.
Mayor
Medina with Vice Mayor Frans Ranches Jr., the Ilocos
region’s tourism Director Martin Valera, former
Hawaii
representative Felipe Abinsay, Unesco Consultant for
Culture Ricardo Favis and City Tourism Council chairman
Dennis Rivas led city officials and employees in the
formal declaration on the celebration of the Viva Vigan
Binatbatan Festival of the Arts.
Medina
enjoined locals and visitors alike to partake of the
entertaining activities that make the feast more joyful.
In his speech,
Valera
lauded the effort and initiative of the city government in
sustaining and restoring its unique tourism brand in the
country.
“When
Tourism Secretary [Joseph] Ace Durano told us to pick an
iconic product in the region, we chose Vigan because it
displayed the rich and unique cultures, events and
religious and historical values,” Valera said.
Favis
cited Vigan as one of the Unesco’s very few sites in the
world that live up to its name as it preserved its unique
and historical designs and plans.
“Vigan
City is a city of universal value. The city government and
the residents were able to sustain and continuously
improve the climate of the
Heritage
Village as guided by the approved restoration policies, in
which this would greatly encourage tourists and visitors
to often visit the city,” Favis said.
Meanwhile,
Mayor Medina said that among the significant religious
feasts in the Viva Vigan Binatbatan Festival of the Arts,
which is done every third of May, is the feast of the Apo
Lakay or the feast of the Black Nazarene. | 
