THE PINANGAT FESTIVAL: A FESTIVAL OF THE MUNICIPALITY OF CAMALIG, ALBAY

            Camalig as a third class town is one of the most picturesque and the earliest town founded in 1579 in the Province of Albay. It is situated approximately 8, 000 feet below the crater of Mount Mayon, the world renowned volcano because of its most perfect cone. It is composed of fifty barangays nestled among the verdant fields and rolling hills where gabi plants grow abundantly. These are the plants from which the tender leaves are gathered and made into pinangat, which is Bicol’s gastronomic delight and a signature dish as well.

            Local gourmets are easily agreed that none can equal the quality of pinangat in Camalig. Whenever visitors come to Bicol, the first thing they invariably look for is their favorite pinangat from Camalig. Even balikbayans do not fail to take home along with them to their host country a box or two of frozen pinangat as pasalubong. That’s how popular and special Camalig pinangat is as a food dish.

            Pinangat is a nutritious vegetable dish whose main ingredient includes shredded gabi leaves, a bit of red ginger, tiny shrimps (balaw) or a slice of salted fish (kanduli) or pork. Crushed pepper (siling labuyo) is added to the mixture to make the pinangat hot. The entire recipe is then wrapped in gabi leaves and tied in small bundles. These are placed in a palayok and cooked in coconut milk.

            Pinangat is definitely a palate teaser, appetizing and yummy. It is in fact the pride of Camalig.

            The highlight of this year’s Camalig Town Fiesta celebration is the PINANGAT FESTIVAL which features the culture and arts of the Camaligueños, the natural and man-made attractions of the municipality and the people’s warmth and hospitality. The name was adopted as an attention-getting feature of the celebration to attract more visitors and promote the product as a food delicacy.

            The month long festivities is a colorful potpourri of memorable and thrilling activities for everyone especially to Camaligueños. This consists of sporting events for the youth and elderly, competition and exhibition in arnis and other forms of martial arts, cultural presentation of creative songs and dances, a folk concert and lives bands, a dance contest among secondary and tertiary students dubbed as “hataw sayaw laban sa droga,”, song writing contest, amateur singing contest, disco in the park, batang pinoy games (Laro ng Lahi), street presentation, drum and lyre corps competition, mass demonstration, civic and military parade, fireworks display and many more. Part of the culminating activities will be the agri fair wherein pinangat cooking contest among local residents engaged in this home industry.

            Over and above all, Pinangat Festival will provide an enjoyable vehicle not only for fun seekers but more importantly  as a means for prospective entrepreneurs, promoters of new business and investors as well to look into various possible ventures that will serve the Camaligueños imagination and continue their collective spirit into becoming more deeply involved in Camalig’s unending aspiration for sustained local development and lasting peace and progress as bodly envisioned and proudly embodied in the municipality’s slogan: OSWAG CAMALIG. To be definite, the festival plays a vital role in the development of the tourism industry in Camalig thus contributing immensely to the faster socio-economic growth and development of Camalig as a medium town for the succeeding years of local governance of development.

Pinangat Festival Calendar of Events

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