Dagupan ready to party with ‘bangus’ grilling
Participants in the Gilon-gilon street dancing competition liven up the celebration of Dagupan City’s Bangus (Milkfish) Festival. —RAY ZAMBRANO
DAGUPAN CITY—By now, 1,000 grills that will line a 2-kilometer section of the De Venecia Highway here have been sold out for the Bangus (Milkfish) Festival’s street party tomorrow.
The one-meter-long grills, each costing P3,300, come with 5 kilograms of bangus, packs of charcoal, drinks, tongs, plastic bags, hotdogs, salt and ice.
The steep price notwithstanding, grillers are assured of quick profits because the street party—the culminating activity of the Bangus Festival—has been the most attended event, according to Epee Rafanan, this year’s festival chair.
Last year, the 5-km stretch of the highway was filled with 800,000 people, with the street party extending past midnight.
Today, the party will open with the ceremonial lighting of the grills by city officials and guests at sundown.
Popular bands and musicians from Metro Manila will perform on the 10 stages that have been put up along the highway, which will be closed to traffic today.
This year’s festival opened on Easter Sunday at Tondaligan Beach in Barangay Bonuan. Last month, Mayor Belen Fernandez cleared the beach front of cottages and sheds, which, she said, were used as prostitution fronts and drug dens.
Since its opening, the festival’s regular features, such as the bangus rodeo and the Gilon-gilon street dance competition, were easy crowd drawers.
“Bangusine,” a bangus culinary showcase, also attracted crowds, who learned and tasted new bangus recipes.
On May 1, the Pangasinan provincial government will hold “Pistay Dayat” (sea festival), the bangus growers’ and fishermen’s way of thanking God for the bounty of the sea. —GABRIEL CARDINOZA
