Masskara Festival - Bacolod City (The City of Smiles)

The Masskara Festival is held each year during the 3rd week of October in Bacolod City, known for being a relatively friendly city and it bears the nickname "City of Smiles". The word "Masskara" was coined by the late AAB president Ely Santiago from the two words "mass" which means "many or a multitude of the people" and the Spanish "kara" meaning "face", thus means a multitude of smiling faces. A smiling mask created by the organizers to dramatize the Negrenses happy spirit.

Like any other Festivals they also have Masskara Street Dance Competition, competing different Barangays in Bacolod City with their colorful masked dancers gyrate to the infectious rhythm to the Latin musical beat in an astonishing display of proficiency, array, coordination and stamina.

Some highlights of their Festivals are the beauty pageant, drum and bugle corps competitions, sports events, food festivals, carnivals, musical concert and electric masskara (so sad :( I was not able to witness their electric masskara) better luck next time :).

Masskara Dance Competition

 Masskara Street Dance Contest

Masskara Dance Competition

Me in the crowd, great experience indeed. I really enjoyed the Festival and I would like to say thank you/we (Me, Neil and Jed) THANK YOU! Darwin Asuncion for providing the accommodation free of charge during our stay in Bacolod City.

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Panaad Park and Stadium, Mansilingan, Bacolod City

Panaad Stadium

The panaad stadium was built on August 1997 to April 1998 and it was expanded in 2007, 2010 and 2011 inorder to accommodate thousands of people. This stadium is owned and managed by Provincial Government of Negros Occidental. The Stadium has a seating capacity of 34,900 for regular seats and 40,000 people with standing areas. The panaad stadium is located inside the Panaad Park and Sports Complex in Mansilingan, Bacolod City.

This stadium is not only for the football league but all athletic games can be done here. It also boasts of its olympic size swimming pool, rubberized track field just like in Cebu City Sports Complex in Abellana that made such a positive difference in Cebuanos lives.

The 2005 Football Southeast Asian Games was held at the Panaad Stadium and was later the venue of the qualifiers of the 2007 ASEAN Football Championship and participated by Timor Leste, Brunei, Cambodia, Laos and Philippines. The stadium is the venue of the annual Panaad sa Negros Festival, a week long celebration participated in by all cities and municipalities in the province.

Panaad sa Negros Festival

Considered as the biggest festival of Negros Occidental, dubbed as the “Mother of all Festivals. The festival was started in 1993. This festival brings together 13 cities and 19 municipalities of Negros Occidental to showcase their, culture, history, agriculture, tourism, trade and other industries of Negros Occidental.

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