“Let us paint the town with smiles, laughter, and love in the last week of Masskara,” Bacolod Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez said Thursday, October 19.
“In this last week of festivities, I encourage each and every one of you to immerse yourselves in the festival highlights and celebrate with the world,” he said in a message posted on his Facebook page.
The Lacson Tourism Strip was in full throttle as the Cosmic Music Festival began on Thursday night, the Bacolod Yuhum Foundation announced in a press release.
Two barangays will have lucky winners as the team of noontime show EAT finds its way in Bacolod to join the MassKara Festival, with live segments of their popular “Sugod Bahay,” led by former Senator Tito Sotto, Wally, Jose and Allan K, it also said.
The television segment allows hosts to invade homes of a lucky resident in a chosen barangay where they will be given life-changing opportunities which will be beamed live nationwide.
In another part of the city, the MassKarade Ball will bring in more than 60 celebrities and politicians, including Senators Cynthia Villar, Lito Lapid and Francis Tolentino at Sugarland Hotel, Friday night.
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The ball, which is on its second year, is a fundraising event patronized by the who’s who in both the entertainment and political world. For this year, five beneficiaries from the sectoral group will be awarded P100,000 as college scholarship funds by the Bacolod Yuhum Foundation as part of their outreach program, the press release said.
Also attending the ball are Rep. Michael Romero and wife, Sheila, former Rep. Cristal Bagatsing, Katrina Ponce Enrile, CCP President Margie Moran, Tourism Promotion Board’s Marga Nograles, designers Paul Cabral and Ann Ong, Tim Yap, Annette Gozon, among others.
Some of the attendees will also be judging the Electric MassKara on Saturday, October 21, which has an added component this year with the presence of the Electric Divas who will have a showdown right after the float parade.
Meanwhile, preparations in the Paglaum Stadium are also underway to ensure that the Arena Street Dance Competition will have no hitches. Due to the security and safety, only 4,500 tickets were printed and distributed while the rest will have to watch the streetdance in the city’s major routes, the press release said.*