Out-Of-Town Contingents Triumphant In 2016 Sinulog Festival

Visiting contingents such as Land of Beauty and Bounty from the province of Lanao del Norte and Kulturang Placereño from Placer in Masbate bested the hometown favourites as they clinched the top plum in the Free Interpretation and Sinulog-based categories ritual showdown respectively in this year’s Grand Sinulog Festival.

Tribu- Katbalaugan from Catbalogan City in Samar came in close second in the Free Interpretation category followed by Tribu Buyoganon in Abuyog, Leyte in the third place. The Tribu Himag-ulaw also from Placer, Masbate landed in the fourth place while Tribu Lumad Basakanon in Basak San Nicolas this city settled in the fifth place.

For the Sinulog-based category, Carcar City Division took the 2nd prize with Tangub City Sinanduloy Cultural Troupe, Pundok sa Kabataang Mananayaw sa Danao City and Municipality of Tuburan in the third, fourth and fifth places respectively.

In the Street Dancing category, Tribu Buyoganon bagged the top spot followed by Tangub City Sinanduloy Cultural Troupe as second place, Kulturang Placereno as third place, Carcar City Division as fourth place and Lumad Basakanon as fifth place.

Now on its 36th year, the Grand Sinulog Festival this year bearing the original slogan, “One Beat, One Dance, One Vision,” featured world class performances by at least 131 contingents of which at least 32 were dancing contingents coming from within and outside Cebu.

Cebu City Mayor Michael Lopez Rama who is the chairman of the Sinulog Foundation Incorporated and the overall chairman of the Mega Sinulog 2016 celebration was very hands-on in taking good care of all aspects of the grand celebration. He inspected the Sinulog Carousel Route for five times during the big day to ensure everything are well taken cared.

Rama was thankful to everyone who have supported all the activities during the Sinulog and reminded everyone to pay homage to Señor Santo Niño as He is the reason for the big celebration.

Sinulog is a dance ritual in honor of the feast of Señor Santo Niño held every third Sunday of January. This year’s theme for the 451st Feast of the Holy Child Jesus is “Santo Niño : Wellspring of Mercy and Compassion.”

Though the festivity was on January 17 this year, the celebration was felt even during the yuletide season as various activities, gimmickry and Sinulog-related competitions were line-up and successfully conducted.

Known as the mother of all festivals in the Philippines, the Grand Sinulog Festival is handled by the Sinulog Foundation Incorporated.

This year, police authorities said that close to 3.2 million people witnessed the grand celebration which turned out to be a huge success having no major bad incident happened, with the smooth and well-organized flow of the activity and blessed with a good weather.

Furthermore, the Mega Sinulog 2016 Grand Finale featured the various dances of the different nations who will be joining the 51st International Eucharistic Congress which will be held here next week. It highlighted this year’s Sinulog celebration theme, “Sinulog goes Global” with its slogan “Celebrate Cebu, Celebrate Sinulog,” capping off with grand and spectacular fireworks display. (Cebu City Public Information Office PIO/Greggy Jiggs P. Senados)