City of Coconuts gears up for rare festival

The coconut, one of the country’s major exports will take centerstage in the distinct and colorful Coconut festival of San Pablo City in Laguna.

Slated on Jan. 10-15, the 10th Coconut festival underscores the many uses of the coconut and its overwhelming benefits to the economic industry of the city.

Highlights of the festival are the Mardi Gras or streetdancing contest and the six-day trade fair and exhibit.

City Mayor Vicente B. Amante said the coconut festival is not just a cultural event but an economic activity designed to promote environmental awareness and appreciation of indigenous products and parochial culture.

Amante, who created the festival in January 1996, added that it is also a symbolic proclamation of San Pablo City’s modern-day mission towards progress and global excellence.

Assistant City Planning and Development Coordinator Melinda P. Bondad explained that the Mardi Gras component of the annual festival is being held to commemorate the 400th Anniversary of founding and establishment of city’s Parish of Saint Paul, The First Hermit, by the Augustinian Priest in Jan. 13, 1596.

This year’s Mardi Gras will be held on Jan. 13 at the City Plaza while the fair and exhibit starts on Jan. 10, at the Doña Leonila (Mini-Forest) Park.

The exhibit will showcase various coconut-based products such as fresh coconut juice, lambanog drink which actually has medicinal effect and various preparations made from desiccated coconut meat that are intended for export to the North and Central America.

Executive Director Eleanor T. Reyes of the City Tourism and Cultural Office said the festival will also feature competitions on the dehusking of coconuts and on the various uses of fresh and matured coconut.

Other activities include a relay run along Doña Evangelina Macapagal Boulevard, where runners will be using fresh buko instead of baton or stake, and preparation of buko salad from dehusking of young nut, until the salad is eaten.