BAGUIO CITY – The Baguio Flower Festival Foundation Inc. and the city government launched the 29th Panagbenga Festival or Baguio Flower Festival 2025 here on Monday, Jan. 6, with the theme “Blossoms Beyond Boundaries.”
NATIVE dancers from the Saint Louis University Center for Culture and the Arts perform at the launching of this year’s Panagbenga Festival in Baguio City on Monday, Jan. 6. (Zaldy Comanda)
Mayor Benjamin Magalong, BFFFI Chairman for Life Mauricio Domogan, and the BFFFI Board of Trustees, led by President Frederico Alquiros, unveiled the one-month calendar of Panagbenga activities from Feb. 1 to March 2 during the flag-raising ceremony at the city hall.
The Saint Louis University Glee Club and Marching Band and the Center for Culture and the Arts performed during the launching.
The annual event formally opens every Feb. 1 with street dancers and drum and lyre bands competing for a slot in the two grand parades – the street dancing parade and the float parade.
Alquiroz said they added a college category for street dancing and drum and lyre aside from an increase in prizes this year. "Extraordinary talent deserves extraordinary reward," he said.
The BFFFI pledged to enhance the event for the enjoyment of people who tirelessly support the historic and crowd-drawing event in Northern Luzon.
Anthony de Leon, BFF Executive Committee chairman, said the prizes increased this year, especially in the float competition. The grand prize used to be P500,000 and will now be P700,000 this year.
“Our target is that maybe in the next years the prizes will be P1 million,” De Leon said.
Magalong said police are now preparing traffic plans for the expected influx of motorists during the major events of Panagbenga.
"We admit that traffic is really a problem in our city, we have expected that, so we are doing everything to control it, because we cannot prevent or prevent tourists from going to our city, so we just need to discipline the motorists during the season of our celebration," said Magalong.