NEGROS HOLDS FIRST BANANA FESTIVAL
La Castellana, Negros, April 17, 1998 - La Castellana, a small town at the foot of smouldering Mount Kanlaon volcano, is capitalizing on one of its primary products to come up with a tourist attraction that could rival Bacolod's Masskara, Kabankalan's Sinulog, Antique's Ati-Atihan and the Pintaflores of San Carlos City.
For its last Barangay Day celebrations, La Castellana town officials surprised Negros Governor Rafael Cosculluela with a unique theme: a "Banana Festival" celebrated in floats, food booths and costumes depicting the popular fruit, with all the materials coming from different parts of the banana plant.
"I always challenge government units to come up with a flagship program on tourism promotion and I know that La Castellana holds a great potential primarily because of the presence of Mount Kanlaon," Cosculluela said.
At least ten varieties of banana were displayed and sold at reasonable prices during the festival. The varieties included: saba, arnibal, cadisnon, turdan, balangon, manila, mundo, murdo, pacol and lakatan.
The "Banana Festival" is now scheduled to be held annually on the first day of April as an opening salvo for the town fiesta of La Castellana.
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