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[av_heading heading=’PEOPLE POWWOW | An update on this year’s Tatusan Festival ‘ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
Ni Ime Sornito
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Thursday, May 11, 2017
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LEST I be accused of misleading tourists who would like to go to the island municipality of Caluya, Antique for this year’s Tatusan Festival, I apologize for having erred in announcing the dates in this corner last Sunday.
May I correct the wrong information passed over to this writer? Tatusan Festival will unfold not on Wednesday but on Thursday next week (May 18) and culminate on Saturday (May 20).
The Tatusan Festival earned regional admiration when Caluya’s “Tatusan Tribe” bagged the championship trophy in the “Kasadyahan” segment of the famous Dinagyang Festival of Iloilo City in January 2016. The same tribe placed first runner-up in the same competition this year.
The same presentation caught the attention of the national media when the tribe performed on opening day of the Palarong Pambansa in San Jose, Antique on April 23, 2017.
Somebody was asking me when and how the Tatusan Festival started. As to “when”, I have yet to know. The “how” is somehow self-explanatory for those who know the root word behind the festival’s name – Tatus, which refers to Caluya’s indigenous blue-streaked crab that feeds only on coconut meat. That makes the tatus the coconut farmers’ competitor in the “harvest” of coconuts that richly abound the island.
Selling tatus is profitable; it is a delicacy that costs at least P500 per kilo. It can grow up to 40 centimeters and weigh up to four kilograms. But it is no joke catching a tatus in its hiding place at night under burrowed land with the help of a flashlight and grilled coconut as bait.
Therefore, since the tatus serves as status symbol for the grateful Caluyans, they make the most of it during the festival when participating tribes stomp the streets amid drum beats in tatus-inspired costumes and on tatus-shaped and tatus-decked floats.
This year’s Tatusan Festival is expected to showcase both the traditional and hitherto unseen presentations, so said Mayor Genevive Lim-Reyes, who has left no stone unturned in its preparation. The opening day on May 18 will kick off with an inaugural mass, segue into blessing of circumferential road and parade, opening ceremony, photo-art exhibit, agro-industrial fare, “hurma-baras” (sculpting white-sand beach) and climax into a lively “Battle of the Bands,” a band-music competition open to amateur bands.
Ten elementary schools from different Caluya barangays have enlisted to participate in the “Drum and Lyre Corps Competition” on May 19, coinciding with the day-long beach party.
The festival’s special presentation known as “Laugh Out Loud (LOL)” – an extravaganza of songs, dances and comedy skit – will showcase entertainment celebrities led by “Kapuso” star Rodjun Cruz and the Miss Tres (an all-women trio of “Asia’s Got Talent” fame) on the final night (May 20) at the Tatusan Gymnasium.
Mayor Genevive Lim-Reyes keeps her fingers crossed that tourism would ultimately compete with traditional income generators in fast-tracking prosperity of the natives.
A question often asked by our readers is how to get to Caluya in time for the Tatusan Festival. So here’s how: Coming from Iloilo City, take a bus or van bound for Libertad, Antique, which would take six hours. On reaching the road leading to the port of Libertad, take a ferry boat to Caluya for a four-hour sailing. Once in Caluya, check into an inn or a pension house.
It’s not as simple as it seems, however, because of the scarcity of boat departures and room accommodations on first-come, first-served basis. This corner advises that you arrange with Caluya’s tourism staff by getting in touch with any of the following cellular phone numbers: 09486806620, 09466893477, 09123342555 and 09484105797. (hvego31@gmail.com/PN)
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