Dinagyang Festival to perform in New York

Dinagyang Festival contingent will perform in Philippine Independence Day Parade in Madison Avenue, New York.
Dubbed as Philippines’ “Queen of Festivals”, Dinagyang was invited by Philippine Independence Day Council, Inc. (PIDCI) together with Vice President Jejomar Binay and other luminaries to grace the annual event on June 5.

Vice President Binay will be the Guest of Honor of the Philippine Independence Day Parade, while the more than 30-some-odd-person Dinagyang Festival contingent will be its main feature and that of the Cultural Festival, two of the three major events held on the same day of the months-long, multi-event 113th commemoration of Philippine Independence. Organized, executed, directed and presented by the Philippine Independence Day Council in New York, the commemoration, now on its 22nd year, has enjoyed the proud reputation among Filipinos and their friends worldwide of being the largest celebration of Philippine Independence outside of the Philippines for the last 17 years.

Philippine Independence Day Parade has become the largest outdoor gathering of Filipinos in the Diaspora. In 2008 the singing sensation Charice was the main feature of the Cultural Festival; and last year, New York Police Department (NYPD) official estimates of the crowd of participants, onlookers and others at Philippine Independence Day was 70,000 persons.

Some of those who have also been invited by PIDCI to Philippine Independence Day are, from the Philippine Government, Congressman and No. 1 pound-for-pound boxer Emmanuel D. Pacquiao, Congressmen Rufus and Maximo B. Rodriguez, Jr. Congressman Jerry P. Treñas of the lone district of Iloilo, Agrarian Reform Undersecretary Gerundio Madueno, Iloilo Governor Arthur D. Defensor, Sr. Iloilo City Mayor Jed Patrick Escalante Mabilog, Tourism Regional Director Edwin G. Trompeta, Philippine Ambassador to the US Jose L. Cuisia, Jr., Consul General Mario L. de Leon, Jr., and Ambassador to the U.N. Libran N. Cabactulan.
From the US Government: US Senators from New York Charles E. Schumer and Kirsten E. Gillibrand, N.Y. Representative Carolyn B. Maloney, N.Y. Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, among others.

Source: Iloilo Today

Posted in: Dinagyang Updates,Iloilo City