CEBU CITY—Activities for the Sinulog Festival have been cancelled altogether.
The Sinulog Foundation Inc. (SFI) on Saturday announced that even the pre-recorded performances of participating contingents will no longer push through.
The SFI earlier announced the cancellation of the actual ritual and street dancing competitions, and advised the participants to just pre-record their performances which will then be shown through social media streaming.
However, the Regional Inter-Agency Task Force recommended to City Mayor Edgardo Labella and SFI President Perciles Dakay “to cancel/stop all physical and actual performance-based Sinulog Festival activities.”
“Even with limiting the number of performers for each contingent or holding of the activities through a “bubble” concept or even pre-recording the videos of the performances of the performers/contingents in their respective places, it will nevertheless pose an increasing risk of being infected with COVID-19 (coronavirus disease),” the task force said in a resolution.
The task force insisted that pre-recording the performances will still attract a big crowd that will be hard to manage due to the limited number of security personnel.
In a press conference Saturday afternoon, Vice Mayor Michael Rama said “our number one consideration is the health and safety of the Cebuano people”.
“The SFI and the steering committee for the Sinulog 2021 Festival to cancel all activities related to ritual showdown. This means we will not push through with our alternative plan of having pre-recorded performance broadcast on social media. Instead, we will be playing past performances of Sinulog winners on social media sites for the public to enjoy in the safety of their homes,” Rama said.