Greater Sudbury’s Filipino community is ready to greet you with a “Mabuhay!”.
On June 22, the Filipino-Canadian Association of Sudbury welcomes the community to Grace Hartmann Amphitheatre for the annual Mabuhay Philippine Festival. “Mabuhay” is a common Filipino greeting and means something like “long life”.
Greater Sudbury’s Filipino community has exploded in in recent years. The association estimates conservatively that between 500 and 700 people of Philippine descent call the city home.
Dr. David Javier, president of the Filipino-Canadian Association of Sudbury, told Sudbury.com last year how much the community appreciates being able to celebrate their culture.
“It’s a good feeling, we feel more at home,” Javier said. And with so many international students in Sudbury from the Philippines, the festival provides a sense of place. While they love Canada, many still look “for connections to home.”
This year’s festival kicks off at 10 a.m. on June 22 at the Grace Hartmann Amphitheatre in Bell Park.
The food and retail booths will open at that time, with six vendors selling Filipino dishes, including lumpia, pancit and halo-halo.
From noon to 1 p.m. a thanksgiving Roman Catholic mass will be held in Filipino/Tagalog, the national language of the Philippines alongside English.
The opening ceremony will begin at 1 p.m. and will feature traditional dances and choral performances, as well as special greetings from Sudbury MP Viviane Lapointe and Sudbury MPP Jamie West as well as a representative of the Philippine Consulate in Toronto.
“There will be a showcase of traditional Philippine folk dances like Bulaklakan and Subli,” Javier said. “There will also be choral performances from the FilCan Chorale, comprising more than 30 volunteer members of the community which was formed in preparation for last year's festival.”
After the opening, attendees can get their blood pumping with a Zumba session that will last 30 minutes.
Perhaps the highlight of the afternoon will be the Mr. Foreignoy contest.
“‘Foreignoy’ is a slang term which means ‘foreigner’ + ‘pinoy’ (Filipino),” Javier told Sudbury.com. “It refers to individuals with no Filipino heritage with traits of a Filipino. More commonly, these may be spouses of Filipinos who know how to sing or dance in the native language.”
Javier added the Foreignoy contest was popularized by a Philippine noontime variety show. But recently, social media influencers have taken up the cause, by trying to learn the Philippine language, contemporary songs, and dances, and those have received “a lot of engagement from social media gaining them popularity.”
The event is sure to elicit more than a few laughs from the crowd.
Once the Mr. Foreignoy contestants walk off the stage, it will be time for the Magpasikat, starting at 3:30 p.m. “Magpasikat”, which means “to show off” in Filipino, is a talent show. Last year’s magpasikat featured mostly children singing and performing.
The talent show will end around 5 p.m. at which time it’s time to rock out, with three Filipino bands from the community set to play. You can check out the music of Poutine and Pandesal, The Scrubs and Cauc-Asian until 6:30 or 7 p.m.