‘Tigtigan’ city’s way of driving away gloom
Starting Friday until Saturday, Angeles City will rock again.
So said a press release by the Angeles City government announcing the Tigtigan Terakan Keng Dalan rock festival, which Mayor Edgardo Pamintuan said was “an idea to bring back the very element that characterized Angeles City—fun.”
The statement said the first Tigtigan was held on Oct. 20, 1992, and it was well attended. “The city for that night lit up again and the people began swaying with life to the beat of rock and roll,” said the city statement.
It said Pamintuan picked up the idea for the rock festival from the Octoberfest of Germany and festivals in Brazil and New Orleans. “If these festivals work, why not a local version,” the statement said.
Tigtigan, it said, became a regular event and is now on its 19th year. During its early runs, it drew tens of thousands of participants.
The idea to hold Tigtigan, the statement said, started when US forces started to leave their air force base in Clark following the Mt. Pinatubo eruption and a rejection by the Philippine Senate of a new treaty that would have prolonged US bases’ stay in the Philippines.
“Pinatubo spoiled the fun, burying the city and much of Central Luzon in tons of ash and lahar,” said the statement.
“More than a year into the Pinatubo eruption in October 1992, Angeles City was still a devastated city with many of its rich citizens leaving and disposing of their homes at basement prices,” said the city statement.
“October was the fiesta month for Angeles, but gloom still enveloped the city,” it said.
The challenge that confronted Pamintuan then, according to the statement, was how to bring life back to Angeles.
According to his office’s statement, Pamintuan and his friends asked owners of restaurants and bars to open up shop, bring out tables and chairs on the MacArthur Highway and “get citizens to go out and conquer the gloom with rock and roll.”
That, according to the statement, was how Tigtigan started.
The event was so successful that, the statement said, a beer company reported it never had as huge a sale as it did in the Tigtigan.
“As in the common belief that loud music and the sound of drums and gongs drive bad spirits away, it seems rock and roll did drive the spirit of gloom away,” the statement said.
