ARRIVING in the Queen City of the South on Ja-nuary 15 for their fifth consecutive participation in Sinulog Festival, the Lanao del Norte contingent is all set to showcase the colorful 'Sarimanok Festival' of their Kolambugan town.
Collectively known as 'Tribu Sarimanok', this is the biggest contingent the province is sending to the annual festival in Cebu City.
"We have about 370 people comprising our contingent. This year, our performance is filled with lots of surprises that will surely excite the Sinulog audience," says Provincial Tourism Head Minda Regis.
After months of backbreaking rehearsals and creation of intricate props and costumes, everything finally comes down to another epic competition for both the local and out-of-town contingents.
In Sinulog 2013, Lanao del Norte will again be competing in the Free Interpretation category which is considered by choreographers and Sinulog devotees as the most competitive category in the annual festival.
The Land of Beauty and Bounty contingent has consistently won in both the Sinulog Showdown event and Street dancing category making them one of the crowd favorites in the competition.
"Our main purpose in joining this highly-anticipated festival is to show to the Philippines and even the whole world that Lanao del Norte is a peaceful and a beautiful province," adds Governor Khalid Dimaporo.
The province of Lanao del Norte is known as the 'Motocross Capital of the Philippines' after hosting numerous international motocross competitions and freestyle motocross events. The province was also identified by the Philippine Basketball Association as the 'Home of the PBA' in Mindanao.
"We have a very unique contingent this year, because some of our dancers and propsmen are Muslims but they are very passionate in their performance. This shows that Muslims and Christians in Lanao del Norte are united because we respect each other's culture and religion," discloses Information Officer Lyndon Calica added.
In this year's festival, a total of 41 contingents will be competing in the Sinulog-based and Free Interpretation categories. Two contingents are from out-of-town in the Sinulog-based while there are six contingents in the Free Interpretation.
The head choreographer for 'Tribu Sarimanok' in this year's Sinulog Festival is Mark Barry Luchie.