Are you excited for the biggest festival of Bacolod City?
After 2 years of getting cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic that started in 2020, the city’s biggest Mardi Gras-themed street party is back with a month-long celebration this 1-23 October 2022.
The theme: Balik Yuhum, the MassKara Festival 2022 aims to bring back the smiles of everyone who participates in the biggest and happiest celebration, not just Bacolodnons and Negrenses. This goes to show that Bacolod is truly the City of Smiles!
The festival events will include different sports competitions such as football and BMX, an auto convention, MassKara Queen, MassKara by the Sea, Giant Puppets, Giant Masks, Electric MassKara and Streetdance Competition.
The festival began in 1980 during a period of crisis on the sugar industry and the collision of inter-island vessel M/V Don Juan and M/T Tacloban City. These tragic occurrences lead into the organization of MassKara by Bacolod City’s local government, artists and civic groups for making the locals merry despite the difficult period.
A celebration of unity in the midst of diversity, the MassKara Festival is touted as the Negrense version of Brazil’s Mardi Gras.
The Masskara Festival—portmanteau of mass (English for “a multitude of people”) and cara (Spanish for “face”), as well as a play on maskara (Filipino for “mask”)—was born, and it has remained popular with tourists from all over the archipelago.
The festival is the people’s testimony that Bacolod City will endure and triumph through the years.
How to Get There
From Manila, you can fly to Bacolod (Php3500++, round trip, 45 minutes). From Bacolod-Silay Airport, you can take a shuttle, or a cab and ask to be dropped off at your destination.