Once again General Santos celebrated its annual Tuna Festival which is one of the city’s biggest events celebrated together with the City’s Charter Day which falls every 5th of September. The festival highlights the city’s main industry which is tuna fishing.
This year’s theme is “Pyestang Karagatan, Pyestang Lawihan sa Magandang Gensan” which happened last September 5 to 13 where there are thousands of tourists (local or foreign) who flock to General Santos City which is known as the “Tuna Capital of the Philippines”.
Among the centerpiece of the event are the lively Tuna Festival Street Dancing Competition and the Tuna Festival Float Parade participated by different companies based in GenSan.
Organizers of the festival also staged the Search for Mutya ng Mindanao 2014 which was won by Christine Juaton of Zamboanga City.
Back to the main highlight of the Tuna Festival, the streetdancing competition which they called Lawihan Street Dancing Competition (Lawihan is the local term for tuna). The street dancing competition concentrated on the significance of the Tuna industry that shaped GenSan as one of the most progressive cities in Mindanao.
The street dancing competition was participated by six contingents who came from the city’s neighboring towns of Sarangani and South Cotabato. They filled the streets of GenSan with splendid colors, wearing their tremendous costume which made everyone feel the true festive spirit of the festival.
General Santos City’s Tuna Festival happens annually in every first week of September.