MASSKARA FESTIVAL: THE HAPPIEST SMILE

MassKara Festival is one of the most popular festival in the Philippines. This is the world renowned special event that Bacolod "The City of Smiles", in the Province of Negros Occidental is celebrating. MassKara festival is a Mardi Gras like celebration that masked and costumed street dancers, with fairs and carnivals. MassKara Festival is celebrated in the third weekend of October.

MassKara Festival is a week long celebration that kick off with mask-making contest, food fairs, brass band competitions, beauty and talent pageants, a windsurfing regatta, drinking and eating contests, trade fairs and exhibits. The highlight of the festivities is the Mardi-gras parade that the street dancers dance in the streets with beautiful design mask and colorful costumes in the Latin rhythms Rio de Janiero style.

The festival first began in 1980 during a period of crisis. In the midst of the tragic events, the city's artists, local government and civic groups decided to hold a festival of smiles, because the city is also known as the City of Smiles. They reasoned that a festival was also a good opportunity to pull the residents out of the pervasive gloomy atmosphere. More important, the festival dramatizes the Negrenses’ fortitude and unsinkable spirit.