The Baguio Flower Festival Foundation, Inc. (BFFFI) is eyeing to help increase the number of accredited float makers in the city to help this particular industry flourish in the light of the growing interest of the community in joining the parade of floats, one of the Panagbenga’s festival highlights.
In a press conference on Feb. 28, the BFFFI noted the highest number of entries joining the 2024 Panagbenga grand float parade, and is considering supporting the float industry to help meet the demand of entities interested to join float parade for more individuals skilled in making floats.
This way, BFFFI Executive Committee Chair Anthony de Leon said they will be able to accommodate more participating floats in the parade, one of the crowd-drawing events of the flower festival.
“We have a limited number of float makers in the industry, which is why we would like this industry to also grow. It is a focus of the foundation to increase the number of float makers because the number of entries is growing. This is an opportunity that we train the future float makers along with the existing ones,” de Leon said.
He said the foundation will conduct seminars and workshops for free and is working on inviting future float makers, as well as the existing float makers which de Leon said are the ones who have built related networks and the ones who can entice others that float making is a worthwhile endeavor for this period of the festival.
“More often than not, the limitation of the entries in the float parade is that there is also a limited number of float makers. One float maker contractor could probably handle five (floats) at the most, and they are stretched as far as manpower and resources (is concerned). So we have to have more accredited float makers in the city,” he said.
BFFFI Chair, Atty. Mauricio Domogan, said learning and being in the float making industry is an opportunity for flower farmers and vendors in the market to have an additional source of income aside from their regular flower business.
He added having more individuals engaged in making floats will minimize the difficulty of existing float makers meet the demand for more jobs during this period of the event.
The Panagbenga 2024 has saw through the procession of a total of 33 floats from various categories including winners in the hall of fame, which organizers considered as historic since it has never happened in the previous grand float parades. – Hanna C. Lacsamana
