How relevant is the Filipino Fiesta? by Bless Salonga

In the Philippines, we have the colourful Ati-atihan festival, a parade of marching bands, Santa Cruzan, talent presentation and competition, the fabulous ethnic games such as “palo sebo” (climbing a greased bamboo), and the sharing of food and delicacies among friends. That’s the Fiesta I enjoyed and remember.

Here in Australia, the first Fiesta I attended was held at the Sydney Cricket Ground as it was conveniently close to our former home in Bondi Beach. Since it was the first one and we didn’t know too many Filipino restaurants or stores back then, our simple need was to buy, eat and shop for Filipino food to take home – and we got all we wanted. The next visit after that was years later at the Olympic Park. We went there to support one of the stall holders we knew.

The first thing I noticed was how disorganized they were at the ticket booth. It took them 10 minutes to issue us a handful of tickets and give us proper change. Having been to a recent Bacardi Fest, I was a bit surprised by the cost of the entrance fee (at the Filo Fiesta). I stayed there for a couple of hours and went home a bit disappointed by the event. Seeing a few familiar faces was my only consolation. Working all over Sydney and receiving invitations from various organizations, I have been to a few festivities where I am able to compare what each has to offer.

I still cannot provide justification why I should pay the fee to be in our very own Fiesta. When I was living in Waldorf and the action was just across the road, my only involvement then was lending my car park to friends. I asked them to bring me fish balls in return. It worked wonderfully.

Last year, pondering upon providing entertainment to our “kababayans”, I encountered a few people who have plenty of horror stories to share. I have been warned about how a band won a competition and wasn’t paid the reward; how people have been invited to entertain and yet imposed upon an entrance fee; and how the cost of stalls have inflated every year.

How bad can this really be”? Why is the fiesta getting such negative feedback? I gave it another go last September and I have a few issues I would like to raise:

? Organization – I heard the judges received their tickets the previous night 2 hours (later) than the agreed time. The guards and sound engineers had no idea of who would perform. Most food stalls sell the same thing – BBQ. How come the stalls were not categorized or clustered properly? Maybe we just have to distinguish if the event is for food, beauty contest or commercial in nature. Then we should just call it a Filipino Food Fest or maybe, Filipino Expo. Otherwise “Filipino Fiesta” sounds a bit bogus.

? Cost – I have been told that proceeds from these Fiestas, which I assume are from sponsors, stalls, entrance fees, competition registrations, etc. less the site fee are being donated back home. Manpower is not an issue because most of them are volunteers. How much are they really donating and who are the recipients? Why can’t they save a portion of that money to buy a property in Sydney so we can have a hall that we can call our own? In turn, the hall can be used to encourage more activities for further fund-raising for overseas and local Filipino community? Why can’t they reduce the cost or make it free by getting more sponsors instead of hitting the stall owners and general public?

? Activities – Why do we have Fiesta’s in the first place? What are the primary goals? What are we trying to promote? Isn’t Fiesta a celebration of talents, culture, community and our history? Wouldn’t it be great to see performers promoting traditional acts such as kundiman, tinikling, ati-atihan and makata? Shouldn’t they encourage further integration if we had stalls promoting Tourism back home? What are they doing to educate others to promote Filipinos to the rest of the world? Wouldn’t it be the perfect time for volunteers to hand out flyers containing snapshots of our heritage; what’s happening back home, promoting our successes across the globe – maybe introduce names like Pacquiao, Charice Pempengco, and Lea Salonga.

Maybe we can learn from the Chinese New Year last February and the 3-day Latin Fest in Darling Harbour, the Leichhardt Italian Fest in August or the Vietnamese Fest just a few weeks prior to ours last September.

My challenge to the organizers – let’s bring back the old Fiesta we all used to enjoy, revive the enthusiasm within the community and make this celebration about us instead.