The world-renowned Masskara Festival has ended successfully. Bacolod City Mayor Monico Puentevella thanked everyone who played a part in the success of the 19-day festival that peaked last Sunday with the 76th Charter Day anniversary. Masskara Festival 2014’s theme was "One Rhythm. One Bacolod. A Million Smiles”.
Here are some facts about the MassKara Festiva 2013l:
1.Masskara Festival is actually spelled with an ‘s’ because the festival refers to the crowd and face, not masks. It is a combination of the words “mass” (crowd) and “kara” (Spanish term for face).
2. All masks use in the fiesta are given a wide smile which symbolizes the people of Bacolod known as the “City of Smiles”.
3. The festival was actually developed to ease the despair and melancholy Negrenses felt during a crisis in the ‘80s. In that same year, the passenger vessel MV Don Juan sank, killing 700 people including those belonging to prominent families in Bacolod City.
4. Unlike other festivals in the Philippines such as Sinulog and Ati-atihan, the MassKara Festival does not pay homage to Santo Niño.
5. The newly crowned MassKara Queen, Christine Joy Madamba, won because of a tiebreaker. The final judges’ tally scoring a tie, a breaking question was necessary and Christine Joy answered it confidently making here the new MassKara Queen.
Since the festival first began in 1980, it evolved into a glamorous festivity reinventing itself over and over again to provide tourists and locals an impressive smile. Well, it’s definitely more fun in the Philippines due to the fact that we have many grandiose and colorful festivals including the MassKara Festival of Bacolod.