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Though the Pistahan has been a familiar means for celebrating, showcasing and discovering Filipino culture for more than a decade, this year's festival included a different homage: a tribute to the recently-deceased People Power icon, Corazon Aquino.
Every year, Pistahan reminds us of the importance of Filipino-Americans coming together, and it provides us a venue to ‘come home,'" hermana mayor Marily Mondejar said in her message for the festival. "Cory Aquino urged us not only to be proud of our roots but also to unite and remember how a strong and proud community, acting together, can make a difference."
March down Market Street
The
Pistahan
parade-deemed
the Fil-Am counterpart to well-known San Francisco pageants such as
the Chinese New Year parade-was dedicated to Aquino. Participants
and onlookers came attired in yellow, the former president's
signature color, and the parade started only after a flurry of yellow
and white balloons were released at the opening ceremonies. In one of the floats, World War II veterans dressed in their full regalia packed San Francisco's iconic cable car and waved to the crowds while brandishing a yellow streamer that declared "Cory Aquino will live in our hearts."
Otherwise, it was the dancers-children and youth clad in folk or modern costumes, doing native Filipino dances on the streets or modern jazz and ballet numbers atop trucks-who proved the highlight of the event.
As the motorcade advanced, tourists headed towards Fisherman's Wharf and Chinatown paused to train their cameras on the floats. Shopkeepers stepped out of their stores. Other pedestrians stopped to watch the procession as well.
Performances, pavilions
Once at the Yerba Buena Gardens, a park nestled in the heart of downtown San Francisco, the Pistahan launched into full swing. Various notable artists from the Filipino-American community took the main stage, while six side pavilions entertained a steady stream of festival-goers and passersby.
Fil-Am Dancing with the Stars salsa specialist Cheryl Burke top-billed Saturday's dance showcase, which also featured various ensembles performing folk dances.
Other Filipino-American artists treated festival attendees with jazz, reggae, R&B, hiphop and pop performances over the course of the two-day event, while celebrities from The Filipino Channel and MYX (Channel 24) music station also dropped in.
Workshops on how to play patintero, sipa and sungka, dance the tinikling and write in the traditional baybayin script highlighted activities at the side pavilions. An adobo cook-off and cooking demo, as well as a balut-eating contest, crowned the attractions for foodies who ceaselessly flocked the various food booths selling lumpia, barbeque-on-stick with achara and other staple Filipino fare.
Exhibits on Bangsamoro art, photographs from an upcoming documentary on the harana and memorabilia from the Japanese occupation of the Philippines were also on site.
Come the evenings, festival-goers turned into concert-goers as the San Francisco Filipino-American Jazz Festival-headlined by Mon David, Anna Maria Flechero, John Calloway and Tateng Katindig-played out inside Yerba Buena Forum Theatre.
Pinoy
twistsElsewhere on festival grounds, flocks of attendees and passersby swarmed booths selling Pinoy-themed t-shirts, caps, jackets, pins and magnets as well as Filipiniana books, handicrafts, woven products, foodstuff and other souvenirs.
T-shirts emblazoned with the faces of Philippine national hero Jose Rizal and popular boxer Manny Pacquiao dominated the merchandise. A number of booths sold People Power-themed items or shirts bearing portraits of Cory Aquino.
Other vendors stamped Pinoy twists on their items by playing on the "Got milk?" advertising slogans and branding their merchandise with "Got goat?" or "Got rice?"
Part and parcel of San Francisco life
The 16th Annual Pistahan Parade and Festival was organized by the Filipino American Arts Exposition, a non-profit arts-presenting company based in San Francisco. A nod to the 500,000-strong Filipino presence in California, the Pistahan is part of a year-long series of events that also includes Filipino Heritage Games by San Francisco Bay Area professional sports teams such as the San Francisco Giants and Golden State Warriors.
In a message for the Pistahan, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom acknowledged the vibrancy Filipinos add to the Bay Area.
This annual event highlights and celebrates the diversity and multiculturalism that make San Francisco such a unique place to live, work and play and a city so embraced by many from all around the world," he said in a statement.
Pistahan promises a wonderful glimpse into the exciting and vibrant experience of the Philippine culture that San Francisco and the surrounding Bay Area have come to appreciate every day."
More photos of the event available at the POC Flickr Photostream
Photos: “Parade Float ” by Sabrina Oliveros, c/o Flickr, “Traditional Filipino Costume” and “Patriotic Shirts (SF Pistahan) ” by Camille Kimberly Pilar, c/o Flickr. Some Rights Reserved
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