The town of Nasugbu launched a first-ever Sugbuan Festival to stimulate tourism to the town as well as to promote better interaction with the many barangays and communities. I was one of the 40 bloggers/photographers invited to cover the three-day event. The Kakanin Festival, a segment of the Sugbuan Festival is covered in a separate blog I wrote earlier.

Nasugbu is a first class municipality and the largest town in Western Batangas. I have been to this town famous for its beach resorts many times before – –  as this town covers both Terrazas de Punta Fuego and the Peninsula de Punta Fuego  which I often go to. It is also from a private wharf on this town where I once boarded a boat that took me to an island resort owned by the Levistes.

Nasugbu is defined by the rolling hills, mountain and sea. Quite naturally, its main industries are agriculture and aquaculture. Hectares and hectares of sugarcane fields plus some farms planted with rice and vegetables and fish from the oceans make Nasugbu self-sufficient and wealthy. Good reason to celebrate and create a festival highlighting the towns wealth thru its crops.

The main event of the festival is the whole-day parade that features floats and street dancing, with students from the various schools in this town all dressed up in creatively designed costumes and chating to their hearts’ content. The floats featured the muses from each barangay, escorted by the dashing barangay chiefs.

The Floats were ingenious in their design in spite of the limited budget, this being Year 1 and no major sponsors were tapped. With the concept, and the innate creativity of the people of Nasugbu, this can be another Kadayawan or Panagbenga in the making.

“live” fish on the net

Huge skirt makes this beauty look like a giant

low budget but high on impact

STREET DANCING. The street dancers ranged from 6 year old grade schoolers to senior high school students. There were bands with pretty majorettes, props to highlight the stories in their dance, and attention-getting devices like lighting a fire on a pot.

This street dance sequence used nets and prawns to highlight one of the town’s industries

MISS NASUGBU: The crowning of the town’s most beautiful girl was scheduled in the evening and it seemed the whole population of the town – – all the way to barangays in the town’s fringes as well as the mountain barangays seem to have descended and rooted for their own muses. The girls performed the night before for the thrilled crowd, showing off their talents and special skills.

I must commend the good mayor for such an initiative. This is a major undertaking. From what I saw on the first SUGBUAN, this festival will grow to be a much anticipated yearly event. And will draw visitors from faraway places. And fill in the town’s many hotels and resorts. Great idea, Mayora