BACOLOD CITY – Perfomers of the MassKara Festival are a “crowd favorite” in the ongoing 2018 Andong Mask Dance Festival in South Korea.
The group of 10 dancers is part of the delegation from Bacolod led by Mayor Evelio Leonardia and Councilor Em Ang, chair of the City Council’s committee on tourism, that attended the festival from Sept. 28 to 30.
The festival in Andong City will run until Oct. 7.
The 2018 MassKara Festival itself will be held here in Bacolod on Oct. 8-28.
During Friday’s opening ceremony in Andong City, the MassKara dancers “got the loudest applause and the audience crowded to snap photos with them onstage,” Ang said in a statement.
They are a crowd favorite and the most photographed among the various international performance groups, she said.
Other performers are from Latvia, Russia, Malaysia, China, Kazakhstan, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, South Africa, Sri Lanka, and Taiwan.
The event is organized by the International Mask Arts and Culture Organization (IMACO) headed by its president Kweon Young-Sae, current mayor of Andong City — a sister city of Bacolod since 2008.
As official delegates, Leonardia and Ang’s travel expenses were all paid by the IMACO.
Leonardia was joined by his wife Elsa and daughter Loren Kara in the trip.
“IMACO, Andong City, and South Korea are part of our family,” the mayor said in a statement.
On Saturday, officials of Andong City and IMACO tendered a traditional Korean dinner reception for the delegations.
During the event, Leonardia said he told the officials they were thankful to IMACO secretary-general Yoon Byung-Jin for opening the doors of IMACO to Bacolod.
The mayor added that their current trip to Andong is sentimental because before he flew to South Korea, he saw his photo with the former mayor of Andong City dated Sept. 29, 2008.
The traditional Korean dinner was held on Sept. 29, 2018, or exactly 10 years after, he added.
The Bacolod delegation also attended the 2018 IMACO International Symposium on Sept. 29 which discussed two topics — “The Ritual Features of East Asian Mask Plays” and “The Ritual Features of Korean Mask Plays.”
IMACO, which is based in Andong City, is a group of international festivals that use masks, with 131 individual and group organizations from 56 countries. (PNA)are a “crowd favorite” in the ongoing 2018 Andong Mask Dance Festival in South Korea. (Nanette Guadalquiver/PNA)
