The celebration of the Bangus Festival 2006 starts with a big bang during its grand opening and formal launching slated on April 21.
The festivity starts with the Bangus Fest Caravan where city government officials, festival sponsors and all the Bangus Festival participants will share the Bangus Festival mania in a band-wagon style motorcade covering the municipalities of Mangaldan, San Fabian, Manaoag and San Jacinto.
At exactly 2:30 p.m., the motorcade will start traversing the routes Dagupan City via Bonuan, San Fabian, Mangaldan, San Jacinto, Manaoag and back to Dagupan via Bolosan.
According to Tony Uy and Robert Tello, chairmen of the event, the order of the caravan are as follows: PNP patrol & Speed cop, DELTACOM, city officials group, Auto Limits, Kabalikat riders, Dagupan Racers, Yamaha, Miss Magic 2006 candidates, Volkswagon Club, North Star Truck Bed, North Star Vintage Motor Club Association, Rage, PANDA Fire Brigade, PANDA Fire Truck, Barangay Patrol cars, Bangus Fest King & Queen candidates and Basketball “Gaymes” participants, BRODI, Mayor’s Team, Festival sponsors and the latest car models such as Honda Ford, Chevy, Kia, Nissan Corp., Toyota and Hyundai truck bed.
The caravan participants will converge at the City Plaza at 6 p.m. in time with the grand Bangus Festival Opening Ceremony chaired by Nora Siapno, president of Metro Dagupan Arts and Culture.
Siapno said that the opening ceremony will feature a ceremonial lighting and other performances that kick off the celebration of Bangus Festival 2006 spearheaded by Mayor Benjie Lim, Vice Mayor Alvin Fernandez, Bangus Festival 2006 chairman Nick Aquino, Sangguniang Panlungsod members, department heads, DepEd officials and some NGOs.
At 7 p.m., the Bandaragupan or Drum & Bugle exhibition will start entertaining the crowd with their electrifying sounds and rhythm. The event will feature seven multi-awarded Drum and Bugle corps namely: Boys of Caridad DBC, Anak ng Tagaytay Aces DBC, Tolentino East DBC, Far Eastern University DBC, Knights of Caloocan DBC, Virgen Milagrosa University Foundation DBC and Dagupan City’s University of Luzon DBC –the country’s recent national marching band champion awarded last April 9.
