CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – The city government wants to make sure that this year’s giant lantern competition and exhibition will be a successful event, so it is setting aside subsidy allocations to support participating teams this December.
“The City government allocated some P2.5 million, to be distributed equally to participating villages for the holding of the crowd gathering Giant Lantern Festival here in San Fernando,” Mayor Edwin Santiago said shortly before the ceremonial lantern switch-on and signing of memorandum of agreement (MOA) between the city government, Giant Lantern Festival Foundation, Robinsons Starmills and local television network CLTV36.
A total of 11 barangays are vying in this year’s competition, to be held at the Robinson Starmills grounds. These include Barangays. Calulut, Del Pilar, Del Rosario, Pandaras, San Jose, San Juan, San Nicolas, Sindalan, Sta. Lucia, Sto. Niño, and Telabastagan.
Last year’s Grand Slam winner Barangay Dolores is not joining this year’s competition.
Rolando Quiambao, one of the pioneers in giant lantern making in this city, is making a comeback joining the team of Del Pilar with Barangay Chairman Jerry Canlas.
The standard size for each entry is an ornate lantern 20 feet in diameter featuring a maximum of 10,000 bulbs.
Organizers assured tourists of spacious parking space as well as smooth travel going to and from the event place with the completion of the road-widening project of Jose Abad Santos Avenue (JASA) connecting Robinsons Starmills and SM City Pampanga.
“Traffic congestion will be reduced by at least 80 percent with the completion of road widening and expansion project along JASA. We will be opening some roads to decongest JASA during the Giant Lantern Festival competition and exhibition,” said Engineer Marni Castro.
Last year, at least 300,000 spectators comprising local and foreign tourists were recorded by the organizers. They are projecting an increase to possibly 1.2 million visitors for this year.
“We are coordinating with various travel agencies to include the Giant Lantern Festival among the upcoming holiday destinations in the country and so we’re expecting a huge influx of guests this year,” Santiago said, adding that the annual festival is an added attraction for foreign visitors attending the Association of South East Asian Nation (ASEAN) activities.
Santiago said the Giant Lantern Festival is now considered one of the economic drivers of City of San Fernando and Pampanga Province, as well.
Security preparations are in full swing as foreign dignitaries and very important persons, including local chief executives from different towns in Central Luzon, have been invited to grace the event.
“Spectators are discouraged from lugging backpacks and other security-risk or unlawful items. The entire competition area would also be declared no fly zone for drones,” said the organizers in a statement. Entrance to the venue is free.