What: 13th Philippine International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta
When: February 12 to 15, 2009
Where: Clarkfield, Pampanga.

Although there’s no update (or announcement) yet from the PIHBF website, the schedule seems to be believable.

You can out my previous hot air balloon experience here & here.

Banda 96, is one of the 2 pioneer band in Bacoor.


D’ Original Band was formed in honor of the late Prof. Hilarion F. Rubio, a native of Digman, Bacoor, Cavite.

Family Band (as I heard) is the newest band in town.

Banda 1 of Gov. P.F. Espiritu, one of the 4 bands coming from Barangay Panapaan.

Banda 8, another band coming from Bgy. Panapaan.

San Lorenzo Ruiz Band from Barangay Aniban, Bacoor.

St. Michael’s Band also from Panapaan.

The pioneer band from Panapaan, Bacoor, the El Gobernador Band.

Now the bands from the neighboring municipalities:

Banda 74 from Kawit, Cavite.

Banda San Roque of Silang, Cavite.

Banda Sta. Monica of Tanza, Cavite.

Banda 93 of Silang Cavite.

And the Rosarian Band from Rosario, Cavite.

The best Marching Band was judged after the parade together with the best Marching Majorette, Best Drum Major & Baton Twirling Contest. The contest were only opened to the 5 guest bands, Bacoor’s Town Mayor, Hon. Edwin “Strike” Revilla was there to witness the activity & award the winners with prizes.

For those who asked on how I did the “painting” look on the photos, blame the LucisArt@trade; Photoshop plug-in for that.

May 11 is the Town Fiesta where the highlight of the events is the Parade of the Marching Bands, this year, 13 bands will be marching the town’s Evangelista Street. I’ll post the photos next time

The event will be held until tomorrow 10 February 2008, there’s more than the balloon to witness, the Philippine Air Force & Navy pilots & sky divers were also present to exhibit their skills. To see my personal account of the event, please see it here.

1. The 401^st Feast of the Black Nazarene has just been concluded last January 9, 2008 where millions of devotees flock the streets of Quiapo, Manila to be part of the parade.
2. The Philippine leg of the Asian F3 series (Rds 6-9) will happen tomorrow & Sunday (January 12-13, 2008) at the Batangas Racing Circuit, a recent development was also announced at Asian Formula 3’s official website that the Chennai leg (Rds 10-13) which was originally scheduled on February 9-10 will be transfered to Batangas on February 16-17.
3. The world famous Sinulog Festival of Cebu will kick of today (January 11, 2008) & will run until February 10, 2008.
4. Baguio City will showcase it’s Panagbenga Flower Festival from February 1 to March 2, 2008 with a theme “Celebrating 13 years of Caring.”
5. Although there were no official announcement from the World Pyro Olympics official website about the 3^rd World Pyro Olympics, wikipedia published the schedule of the event, February 16, 2008 China & Germany; February 23, 2008 Japan & Australia; March 1, 2008 South Korea & Dubai, UAE; March 8, 2008 Italy & Venezuela; March 15, 2008 France & Philippines.
6. From February 7-10, 2008 Hot Air Balloons will fill the airspace of Clark Field Pampanga for the 12^th Philippine International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta.

I wish I’d be able to see them all, I’m still planning which of these festivals or event I can attend.

I can’t believe what my eyes have seen, this is one hell of a crowd, the police has estimated the crowd to be at around 3 Million, I believe there’s more.

People from everywhere flocked the streets of Quiapo to fulfill their devotion to the Black Nazarene.


Of course, the politicians won’t be left behind, instead of actually being there, they’ve printed their names to the t-shirts & distributed to the devotees. Yes they were there in spirit, or maybe in shirts.

It was hard to find a vantage point, the best place to shoot was on top of a building but I wasn’t able to find one, I found a good place within the Carlos Palanca St. near Mayer’s Photo, then the parade started & we were mobbed!

Here are some of the shots I took within that area.

From there I went to Quezon Bridge to find a better view of the parade, by this time the image of the Black Nazarene just made it’s first round.

The next shot was taken while I was on top of a fire volunteer’s fire engine, this time I have a better vantage point

Around 4:30PM when I left the place, I don’t wanna be caught in one hell of a traffic congestion. It was quite an experience having covered it the first time.

A Photo Ops/EB is being organized at the PiPho Forum which I might join, I hope that there’ll be no conflict in my schedule. I’ve never been to this festival, I’m quite worried about the warning of getting wet, it has been a tradition to sprinkle (or even throw) waters to the spectators, I hope my camera will be spared.

Angono offers a lot of possible side trips after the parade, the Angono Petroglyphs is good place to visit, there’s Balaw-Balaw Restaurant (in case nobody offers you a free meal), & being the birthplace of famous Pinoy painters like Botong Francisco et. al, the art galleries must be in a must place to visit.

I hope I’ll be free & in tip-top shape on that day.