Burnaby Pinoy Festival 2023

Jun 30

Pictures and videos featuring BIBAK British Columbia during the Pinoy Festival in Burnaby, BC on Saturday June 24th.

BIBAK BC Members banded together along with the Benguet Society of British Columbia organization on the afternoon of June 24, 2023. Both organizations joined other Filipino performances and other exhibitionists throughout the day.

I had arrived late past 1pm and missed the exhibition performed by our fellow Kailians of BSBC, however I managed to capture the performance of members of BIBAK youthas well as folks from Kalinga. They performed the “Banga dance”, not a traditional dance of Kalinga but a contemporary one that was invented in the 20th century and has become a signature dance from Kalinga. The “Tadchok” soon followed ,a true traditional dance of Kalinga. After the Kalinga exhibition the BIBAK youth played the “Balangbang”, then the “Sakuting”, a dance using sticks that has a resemblance and it’s origins similar to “Arnis” of the lowlands and southerners (the Sakuting too is not a traditional Igorot ‘dance’ however it has been adopted to be something of a signature for Cordilleran performers). This was followed by the “Boogie”, performed by Manay Olosan and Justice Bentayen.

Once the BIBAK completed their exhibitions the performaces was capped off by uncle Zosimo “Torogi Kid” Tanas of Benguet. Uncle and the Torogi Kid Band comprised of the other uncles sand and played the song “Sisiwit”. The song has it’s origins from Kalinga, is a word for bird (i). During this performance the crowd was encouraged to join in the circle led by the Kailians from Kalinga and a tumult of people joined in with the dancing. One who was part of the throng was none other than the BC Premier, Hon. David Eby, dancing with much enthusiasm and joy with the rest of the crowd.

Below are two sets of photo sets and some videos captured by myself (J. Matias)

Part I