Setting the Limelight to Isabela's Bambanti Festival 2018
http://www.gastronomybyjoy.com
SUNDAY, JANUARY 28, 2018
There is one thing Isabeleoñs are undeniable about, their ardent love for their Motherland.
Ergo, the annual Bambanti Festival was again live this year, in all its vibrancy and warmth of welcome bearing the theme “ISABELA KONG MAHAL” (Isabela, My Beloved Land).
Organized by the Provincial Government of Isabela, the Bambanti Festival is a tourism, trade, and environment project aiming to develop, promote, and market Isabeleños’ world-class indigenous products, lifestyle, merchandise items, and cuisine as the pride of province.
Bambanti Festival 2018, celebrated from January 22 – 27, focuses on Isabeleños’ warm traits for their beloved land, care and protection for their national resources and environment, love and respect for the culture, history, and heritage of the community, and consistent efforts for a sustainable agriculture and all other industries.
The theme “ISABELA KONG MAHAL” depicts Isabeleños strong commitment to their beloved land and outstanding virtue of hard work, proudly sharing to its visitors how their family-inherited traits contributed to the fast-growing socio-cultural and economic development of the province through various creative concepts and images.
‘Bambanti’ isn’t just the Ilocano word for scarecrow
Apart from being the Ilocano word for scarecrow, Bambanti is also the name of the award-winning annual festival of Isabela Province. Of course it makes sense that the colorful Bambanti is the mascot and icon of the Bambanti Festival, which begins today January 22 and end on Saturday, January 27.
With events like are street dances, showdown competitions, street performances, a search for Bambanti Festival King and Queen, and the most important – at least in our book – the Isabela’s Master Kusinero Cooking Contest, Bambanti Festival aims to highlight the province’s rich cultural heritage, lifestyle, products, and food.
Taking home the Best Festival Practices and Performance Aliw Awards from 2015-2017, it’s safe to say that the local government of Isabela has been doing a good job.
From last year’s “Isabela Para sa Daigdig”, the theme for this year's Bambanti Festival is “Isabela Kong Mahal”, depicting Isabeleños’ ardent love for the love of their province. — LA, GMA News
Queen’s province celebrates the scarecrow
Although named after a Spanish queen, the province of Isabela celebrates yearly the lowly scarecrow, which despite being inanimate, has been a “friend” to farmers in many parts of the world, including the Philippines, for generations.
The scarecrow or bambanti in Ilocano, the predominant language in the second northernmost province, has been the low-technology protector of farmlands from birds that would otherwise devastate agricultural crops.
Not surprisingly, for Isabela, self-proclaimed center of agriculture in the country, the bambanti represents the best of the province and her people—silent but vigilant and resilient.
The Agri-Ecotourism Fair this year was participated in by majority of Isabela’s 34 municipalities and three cities, including the capital Ilagan.
Isabela enthusiastically pursues the one town-one product (OTOP) campaign initiated by then President Fidel V. Ramos.
This was evident in the offerings of every booth in the agri-ecotourism fair including chocolate-scented pinilisan red rice, corn (Isabela is reputedly the country’s corn capital), sugar, cacao, monggo and other legumes, mushrooms, mangoes, ube, and various rice cakes.
The distinctive products of each town were also showcased in the giant bambanti that “guarded” the agri-tourism booths. Beans and legumes, rice, corn, seashells and many other materials went into the making of the different scarecrows, depending on the main crop or product of the town or city they represented.
Beyond Isabela’s fields of rice and corn
BY ALYSSA ASHLEY LUCAS (The Manila Times) ON FEBRUARY 18, 2018
Considered the “Queen Province of the North,” Isabela exuded an aura of pride and joy as the last fireworks lit up the sky. The crowd applauded, ending the night on a high—after months’ worth of laborious preparation made for a successful 2018 Bambanti Festival.
Typically overlooked as a tourist destination, Isabela actually abounds with white beaches and highlands of the neighboring provinces. Add the vast fields of rice and corn blanketing its land, which are commonly mistaken as the only sights in the province. While the fields are a great sight, they often obscure what the northern beauty really has to offer.
Seeing past through its thriving agricultural production, though, one will see a province rich in culture with a vibrant past, gorgeous attractions, and beautiful people that make up its northern charm.
Bambanti – the Ilocano word for scarecrow – is an award-winning festivity that honors the hard work and dedication of Isabeliños, as well as a showcase of the province’s commodities. It is likewise known as one of the biggest festivals in the north that people from different parts of the country attend each year.
With this year’s festival theme, “Isabela Kong Mahal” (Isabela, My Beloved Land), the northern province became a feast to the eyes for one glorious week in January. Gorgeous booths delicately lined up, built and designed with intricate details from the 34 municipalities and three cities attracted visitors for the wide variety of indigenous products worthy of global recognition.
Isabela’s dancing scarecrows…and more
By Bernard L. Supetran (Business Mirror) - February 18, 2018
Coupled with cartoon animation, techno-pop music, and capped by a pyrotechnics display makes the show a cut above the rest, enough to make it a perennial winner in the Aliwan Fiesta competitions.
Inatata, Bala-bala and Other Food Finds at Bambanti
MANILA, Philippines — Bambanti. It is the Ilocano word for “scarecrow.” In Isabela, where close to 69 percent of the population are Ilocanos, the province’s premier festival is named after the bambanti. The annual festivity not only pays tribute to the figurative guardian of the rice fields but also displays a literal outpouring of joy and thanksgiving for a bountiful harvest.
Located on the northeastern seaboard of Luzon, Isabela is the country’s second largest province in terms of land area, occupying almost 40 percent of the Cagayan Valley region. With its rolling terrain and fertile plain, between the foothills of the Central Cordillera mountain range to the west, the Sierra Madre to the east, and the grand Cagayan River that runs through it, Isabela thrives primarily on agriculture. It is the country’s No. 1 corn and monggo producer, as well as the country’s biggest rice surplus producer.
The Mindanao Grains Corn Processing facility in the municipality of Reina Mercedes is the biggest post-harvest plant in Asia. The Magat Dam in Ramon is the biggest dam in Southeast Asia, supplying the energy needs of Central Luzon and Metro Manila while servicing the irrigation needs of 95,000 hectares of farmland all year round.
With the theme “Isabela kong mahal” (Isabela, my beloved), this year’s Bambanti Festival, which was held from Jan. 22 to 27, featured a weeklong Agri-Ecotourism Exhibit and Sale at the pop-up Bambanti Village within the grounds of the provincial capitol in Ilagan City.
The 34 municipalities and three cities of the province set up their individual booths, each showcasing the different products they are best known for, such as mung beans (monggo) from San Mateo; aromatic red rice called Pinilisa from Jones; rice wine made from brown rice from Luna; moriecos, a sticky rice cake (suman) stuffed with latik (coconut syrup) from Cabatuan; Inatata (an Ibanag name), tiny suman also known as bala-bala, so called since they resemble a magazine of bullets when strung together; and pancit miki from Cabagan, to mention just a few of the many local products
