MABALACAT, Pampanga- No less then 200 artists, writers, and “cultural workers” from all over the country will gather at the lahar-covered foot of the Mabalacat-Bamban bridge here for the 5th Sunrise Festival on Nov. 28 to 30.
The Sunrise Festival is an annual event staged by the Maharlika Artists and Writers Federation (MAWF), for the first time to be held in Pampanga with the support of the Pampanga Artists’ Guild (PAG), Mabalacat Council for Culture and Arts (MCCA) headed by Sigfried Ranada, the Department of Tourism (DOT) in Region 3, and this town’s Mayor Marino Morales.
Ranada will also act as director of the 5th Sunrise Festival.
MAWF national director Deo Palma said the first Sunrise Festival was held in Cebu City in 2004. He said the concept of the festival is “to bring together different artists and writers from various cultural communities nationwide to promote a culture of peace through arts and literature”.
The festival, to be held on lahar-covered grounds at the Mabalacat-Bamban bridge, will feature Aeta presentations, fora, musical performances, poetry reading, story telling, theatrical presentations, and such events known as “pistang pananari” and “pistang pintados”.
Also slated are arts workshop for children and the visually impaired, as well as “indigenous marriages”.
“There will be bonfires, awarding ceremonies and film presentations,” Palma said.
Through such a festival, artists and writers could be empowered “through the enhancement and cultivation of the culture of various countries”, he said.
He noted that the coming festival “aims to provide a place and time every year for artists to gather and share their talents in the preservation of our cultural heritage”.
“This is why for every Sunrise Festival, we invite artists and writers from various regions, such as the Subbuhanons, Igorots, Mindanaoans, Kapampangans, Kalingans, Bicolanos, Ilocanos, among others,” he said.
The Sunrise Festival, he said, “integrates all aspects of the arts such as music, visual, literary, dance, theatre”.
On the last day of the festival on Nov. 30, the anniversary of hero Andres Bonifacio, participants would be asked to wake up at dawn facing east.
Palma explained that the festival is named after the sunrise “because on the last day, the participants will wait for the rising sun which is both the symbol of the universal God that encompasses all humanity and creation, with musical instruments, chanting and meditation”.
Organizers said the festival will leave behind a new Maharlika day care center for the local community.
