Panagbenga 2009 (Baguio Flower Festival): Parade of Floats

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My very first Outdoor Wednesday post hosted by Miss Susan of A Southern Day Dreamer 🙂

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The city has just finished celebrating the month-long Panagbenga (Flower Festival) which is celebrated every year. There were lots of activities and one of them is the Parade of Floats.

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On that day, representatives from different organizations/establishments compete on who has the most beautiful float. One thing to keep in mind is that the floats should be covered in flowers. Well, whatever the design it should be composed of flowers.

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Isn’t that just grand? We were able to witness large sculptures out of flowers. And there’s hundreds… thousands of different KINDS and COLORS of flowers!

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We didn’t actually witnessed the whole parade. The streets/sidewalks were swarming of tourists from different places. We did however went to were all the floats were displayed after the parade later on the day :-).

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There are lots of people taking pictures as well, I just tried my very best to take the best snapshot I can get.

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(Note: Everything is covered in flowers. Feel free clicking on the picture for a larger view to really see the flowers used)

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(Some of the floats I captured)

Perfect gazebo for a garden wedding, yes?

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A "for your eyes only" hot air balloon 🙂

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Yup, even Pharoah's cap (what's it called?) is made of flowers.

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A flower made of flowers. What do you think? 🙂

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Aaawwww. If only we all help to save the world so that it will remain as beautiful as this.

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Doesn't this jest makes you smile?

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Can you see the medicine bottles? If only they smell as good as these ones.

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Mmmmm coffee. Too large for me though.

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This came in Third Place. The hotdogs are made of roses. The house? well, lots and lots of flowers 🙂

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I think this one came second. Just look at those giant flower-donuts.

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First Place goes to Greenwich Pizza. This was my bet as well. The drum set is all flowers, as is the background "Rocks!". Well EVERYTHING in this float is covered in flowers!

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Hope you enjoyed looking through them.

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Happy Outdoor Wednesday!

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For other Outdoor Wednesday Posts just click on the logo at the very top or on the sidebar.

There are still lots of “close-up” shots of flowers which I’m reserving for Pink Saturday since most of what I’ve taken are pink 🙂

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I’m glad you guys enjoyed the floats and thank you for the wonderful comments.
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Panagbenga literally means “Season of Blossoming” and it started 14 years ago. Probably 2 or 3 years after the major earthquake struck Baguio City. It is like a way of coping and waking the city up again. That there was still hope right after the disaster. Many establishments and homes just crumbled down. We haven’t tranferred back then but I remember stories from my relatives who already lived here. ‘Twas a really scary moment for them. The Float parade is just one of the many activities.
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It’s nice to hear comments that it is quite similar from the Rose Parade? Does that mean the floats are just decorated with only roses? These floats we have are assortment of flowers but to have so many floats with just all roses.. Wow! That’ll be a lot, and I mean a lot! It must have been really really beautiful. Say, my birth flower is a rose 🙂
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There were also street dancing (another day) from different schools and levels (this year we have visiting towns participate as well so thank you to them). Too bad I don’t have pictures. Tendency is residents just stay at home and watch the live coverage while tourists just overflows 🙂 But the floats I have to watch personally 🙂
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In the opening parade the Philippine Military Academy Band will wear their flowery polos and dance/perform on the street. Funny seeing those future-to-be soldiers standing on their neatly pressed uniforms so straight… so serious and really focused while their band is just having all the fun dancing with the crowd 🙂
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And then on the last week of the event is the Session Road in Bloom where a portion of the main road will be closed. Then on the very last night – fireworks! 🙂