Just Asking

With the brouhaha over questions as to which festival is the biggest, the grandest, most popular, high-speed money-maker, one would wonder what would come next.
If the intent is to outdo each other, then the same question will be asked all over again next round, next year.
I was invited to the ‘ABS-CBN Canada One Kapamilya sa Mabuhay Festival & Trade Show Festival 2011 Sponsor’s Night’ (what a mouthful)to meet over dinner the stars from ABS-CBN Manila on the eve of their performance at the Convention Centre. It was July 22.
I don’t easily give in to invitations, especially this type, but if I didn’t go that would have been the second time that I stood up a friend. There is limit to patience but not to friendship. Besides, another friend needed a ride to the event that night. So I went to Casa Loma where the star studded welcome dinner was held.
If it was not for the people I always love to see, I thought I was in hell. It was a cauldron of fire at Casa Loma that night despite what was said as full-blast air-conditioning. The close to 200 people were all sweating wet like in the sauna. Two mixes of cranberry juice with vodka did the trick for me.
In smouldering heat everyone was in good spirits including members of Philippine Press Club-Ontario: Ruben and Tess Cusipag, Jess and May Cabrias, Carlos Unas (on leave?), Rizza Khamal, Larry Torres, Noel Perada, Ariel Ramos, Rolly Cabrera, Jojo Taduran, and Karen Pascual Binaday (she looked stunning in black).
Other members of the media present were Bin Kon Loo with wife Paz, Joey Baking and Eddie Lee.
Officers and members from both Philippine Independence Day Council and ABS-CBN Canada, led by Minda Neri and Marco Amoranto, were in full force to welcome John Lloyd Cruz, Jericho Rosales, Billy Crawford, Vina Morales, Kaye Brosas, Angeline Quintos, Jed Madela plus Manila fashion gurus Rene Salud and Shanon Pamaong. Oh, boy, that was a hot night — literally and figuratively.
That was prelude to the following day’s ‘festival of festivals’.
From those who were at the festival/trade show at the Metro Convention Centre, the event was a blockbuster; tickets were all sold out (reason perhaps why I wasn’t there).
Those who follow events in the GTA, including rambling talks and behaviours surrounding them, know that PIDC and ABS-CBN’s is not the only festival around. There’s the new kid on the bloc Pinoy Fiesta and Trade Show held in June at the Convention Centre also, Filipino Centre Toronto’s Pistahan sa Toronto held annually at Nathan Philip Square; in Mississauga, to debut on July 30 is Kalayaan’s, well, Fiesta ng Kalayaan, in August on its third year is the Our Lady of the Assumption (OLA) Pistahan, and also in August is the all-free event Filipinos Making Waves Festival at the heart of downtown Toronto in Dundas Square. For sure there are more that we have not mentioned here.
One could just marvel at the energy level, not to mention the commitment, of the people behind these ventures. There’s no doubt of course that Filipinos and non-Filipinos alike enjoy these fiestas as Filipinos are incurable addicts to merrymaking and entertainment.
Aside from the joys that people get from these fiestas, aside from the self-fulfillment that volunteers find, what is it that those who organize them get in return? I have tried asking this question many times and the answer I always get: service to the community.
People, the likes of Rhett Butler in Gone with the Wind, would say, “Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn.” Do you?