Iloilo City ushers earlier Christmas shopping with street night market

A night market activity was also held in Iloilo City as shown in this photo taken last August 2024 to celebrate the city’s charter anniversary. This time, the night market is intended to usher in the Christmas season. — Photo courtesy of Sherwin Balajadia Bachoco

ILOILO CITY — The Iloilo City government has announced its night market’s return to the historic Calle Real, aiming to attract more vendors and increase foot traffic in the downtown area for the yuletide season.

Wilfredo Sy Jr., technical lead for events of the Iloilo City meetings, incentives, conventions, and exhibitions or Mice Center on Monday, Nov. 11, said that Calle Real would be closed to vehicles from Nov. 15 to 17 for the Christmas street night market.

A small portion of Calle Real, also known as J.M. Basa Street, will be closed from M. Peralta Street, until the corner of Mapa and Guanco Streets on these dates.

This will be the second iteration of the Mice Center’s night market activity, which was first held last Aug. 16 to 18 and 23 to 25, to celebrate the city’s charter anniversary.

It welcomed an estimated 15,000 visitors, according to local police data, and estimated sales of more than P1.275 million for participating vendors.

The city aims to have more vendors this time, targeting 100 participants, up from 70 last August.

Target participants include ambulant vendors; local farmers and producers; food stalls; stalls from the Iloilo hotels, restaurants, and resorts association; barbeque vendors; food vendors from the Kaon Ta Iloilo group; street performers; and non-food stalls.

Performances include folk dance presentations, drag queen performances, caroling, baking demonstrations, acoustic and band nights, a dog show, ILOmination tribe performances, and buskers.

Sy said that the November dates were a strategic decision, citing budgetary and attendance factors.

“We start celebrating Christmas during the ‘ber’ months, and we are also looking at this in terms of strategizing [because] the 13th month bonuses start coming in [in November]. November 15 is also a payday weekend. We want to take advantage of this because if we put it out later, there may be no more budget,” Sy said.

“We also understand that during the time of December, we have a lot of Christmas parties. In terms of attendance, we cannot fully maximize,” he added.

Sy also addressed concerns about overpricing by vendors which was one of the chief complaints addressed to them during the first night market.

“We cannot control that (prices). Of course, for them (vendors), they also look forward to earning [return on investment]. They pay overhead rental for the place. [August] was the first time; maybe this time they could regulate their prices to be more friendly because they now understand the crowd,” he said.

Traffic and Transportation Management Office (TTMO) head Uldarico Garbanzos also laid plans for traffic management for the night market and the city’s New Year’s countdown on December 31.

Regulation Ordinance No. 2024-222 was approved by acting mayor Jeffrey Ganzon on October 30 for the road closures on these dates.

According to Garbanzos, the whole stretch of J.M. Basa will be closed to vehicular traffic, as well as points in nearby roads, including Mapa, Guanco, and Peralta streets. The whole of Muelle Loney Street will also be closed for the New Year’s countdown.

Parking areas include Arsenal, Aldeguer, Guanco, Mapa, Ortiz, and Calasanz streets, but some portions of Aldeguer, Guanco, and J.M. Basa streets will not be allowed for parking.