Welcome to Bohol and welcome to Sandugo Festival!
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| Photo grabbed from Soc Garcia |
Sandugo (Blood Compact) Festival is a commemoration of the friendship between chieftain Sikatuna of Bohol and conquistador Miguel Lopes de Legazpi of Spain. Both agreed to shed blood on a cup of wine and drank them to forge that friendship. This historic event made Tagbilaran City the City of Friendship.
To commemorate that event, the province celebrated Sandugo Festival, a month-long festivities of culture, heritage and arts. Sandugo started on July 1, also the Charter Day of Tagbilaran City. Main events, however, are celebrated after the Charter Day celebrations of the province of Bohol on the 22nd of July.
If you are interested to come and join in the celebrations, here are the program of activities for the 2013 Sandugo Festival.
July 1
47th Tagbilaran City Charter Day. Expect parades and musical events on this day.
July 1-31
Nightly activities at the City port with different nightly sponsors. Usually bands and cultural presentations.
July 13
Miss Bohol Sandugo 2013 Swimsuit Competition
July 17
Miss Bohol Sandugo 2013 Talent Competition
July 20
Miss Bohol Sandugo Pageant and Coronation Night
July 22
Bohol Day Celebrations (159th Charter Day of the province)
July 24-28
Sandugo Trade Expo 2013 at ICM's The Block. This year's them is Go Green, Buy Local. The Sandugo Trade Expo will feature locally made products focusing on heritage, culture and environment protection by using eco-friendly and indigenous materials. Surely, you will love to go shopping for furnishings, fashion accessories as well as fresh and processed food.
July 26
Sandugo 2013 Street Party at Tagbilaran's main street CPG Avenue. This is going to be the fun part of the Sandugo Festival. The Bohol Sounddugo Street Party boasts of the biggest, baddest and loudest sound system, perhaps, a first in Bohol party scenes. I am sure you won't want to be left out.
July 28
Sandugo 2013 Streetdancing Competition. I hope there's going to be a big bunch of competitors this year. Last year was quite a disappointment among photo enthusiasts who came in to join the street dancing photo competition.
Don't forget to wear a smile. Boholanos are known to be hospitable and may welcome you to their homes. But be careful and be wary of scammers and other bad elements. Tagbilaran is recently experiencing major crimes done even in broad daylight and the police seems not able to solve them.
