Dabawenyos urge to participate in Davao PaskOnline Fiesta online activities

Dabawenyo families are encouraged to join the online competitions for the city government’s month-long Christmas festival – the Davao PaskOnline Fiesta (DPF), with more than P200,000 worth of cash prizes and other gifts up for grabs.

During the online media launch of the Davao Pasko Fiesta on Wednesday, November 3, Davao City Tourism Operations Office (CTOO) head Generose Tecson urged Dabawenyos to participate in the various online activities lined up for the annual celebration.

“We want to be able to encourage people to stay at home for Christmas and most especially to take care kay wala pa nawala ang COVID (because COVID-19 is still here) but, we want also to have special time with our family and sana matulungan natin ang lahat to be able to imagine kung ano ‘yong mga pwede nilang gawin in order to celebrate Christmas (we hope to help the people on how they can celebrate Christmas),” Tecson said.

Tecson added that they decided to start the DPF earlier to give Dabawenyos more time to prepare their entries for the online activities, which include Himig ng Paskong Dabawenyos (An Online Family Caroling Competition); Family Tiktok Ngayong Pasko (An Online Family Dance Competition); Christmas Cards of Hope (The Davao Pasko Fiesta Family Christmas Card Making Competition); and Paskong Litrato ng Pamilyang Dabawenyo (a family Christmas Photo Contest).

Aside from those, other activities for the DPF are the Pamilyang Dabawenyo Pasko Serye; Himig Davao Pasko Fiesta Online Caroling, Misa De Gallo; Lanang Holiday Weekend Market; Davao Paskonsierto Online ng Smart/PLDT; Metro Davao Family Film Festival (MDFFF); and Smart/PLDT Torotot Online Festival.

Interested individuals who want to join the competitions may visit the official Facebook page of the DPF for more information (fb.com/DavaoPaskoFiestaOfficial). Mechanics and the prizes at stake for each competition will be posted on their social media account.

For this year’s theme, “Buong Pamilya Sama-sama Magsasaya Punong-puno ng Pag-ibig at Pag-asa,” organizers of the DBF wanted to highlight the essence of Christmas which is family and the traditions that Filipinos enjoy doing during the holiday season.

“We are very very happy that we started early this year kay madami po kaming plano para sa lahat and kahit naman online ito, we want to go back to the roots ‘yong celebration ng Christmas which is the family (we have a lot of plans and even though this is just online, we wanted to go back to the roots of the Christmas celebration which is the family),’ she said.

On the other hand, DBF Festival Director Gatchi Gatchalian is pinning his hope that the upcoming festival will be as successful as the 36th Kadayawan sa Davao virtual celebration, which was held from August 20 to 22 with the number of engagements, online participation, and positive feedbacks they got from the Dabawenyos.

“Exciting ito kaya as early as today and starting tomorrow, magfu-fullblast campaign tayo to invite the Davao families to join us in our online activities particularly the online competition,” Gatchalian said.

Also, the organizers launched the official Christmas jingle of the DPF sung by Huly Ray Asidor and composed by Gatchi Gatchalian.

Meanwhile, in his message, Davao City Vice Mayor Sebastian “Baste” Duterte invited the media to join us in celebrating the Davao Pasko Online Fiesta 2021 and help the government spread the information about DPF to entice more Dabawenyos to participate in the event.

“The local government has prepared activities and online competitions that will surely make this event more fun and meaningful for every Dabawenyo,” the vice mayor said. CIO