Compostela Valley, Davao Region, Set for 2nd Summer Beach Festival

Compostela Valley summer beach festival all weekends of May

Fire dance. Beach dance riot. Body painting. Water volleyball. Kopiat swim challenge. PhP80,000 cash prizes up for grabs.

All these and several more are lined up in the joint SHARE-PTC-provincial tourism and Provincial Physical Fitness and Sports Development Council (PFSDC) 2nd Summer Beach Festival 2010 along the province's coasts of Pantukan, Mabini, and Maco on May 15-16, May 22-23, and May 29-30 (all weekends of May).

The PFSDC headed by Provincial Executive Assistant Isabelo Melendres has given its full support to the event, providing among others the logistics, cash awards equity and seeing the festival as an extension of its provincial physical fitness program.

Although the summer beach sports festival is part of the promotion and marketing campaigns of our tourism office, as a sports event per se, the province considers it as a major part of our campaign also to promote advocacy in sports for the health and well-being of our people," Melendres said.

Compostela Valley Governor Arturo Uy encouraged the holding of the event, seeing it as an important component towards peace and harmony among the different sectors of the province.

"Last year's first summer beach sports festival was successful, there's no reason why we should not pursue it this year and the years to come.

Sports is a unifying factor and through this we hope Compostela Valley can contribute to the national efforts for peace, harmony, and reconciliation," Governor Uy said.

SHARE is the association of small hotels and resorts while PTC is the Provincial Tourism Council and the Department of Tourism RXI, the active partners of the provincial tourism office in the organizing of the only summer beach festival of the Davao region that started last year.

The festival unofficially opened last May 1 with the Magnaga Girl of Summer Bikini Open. On May 8, Beach View Resort in Pindasan Mabini will hold the grand opening of its Beach View Bar and host a press conference for the event and the summer beach festival. The beach event will feature the Kuntaw Ethno Band and Manong's Island Fire Dancers, an art exhibit, a small bazaar, bonfire lighting, henna tattoo, and a fireworks display.

The official 2nd Summer Beach Festival officially opens on May 15 at Beach View Resort with a men's beach volleyball competition in the morning and the fire dance competition, beach dance riot, and a reggae band contest in the afternoon and evening. Beach View will also host the women's beach volleyball on May 16.

The other events are: May 22 the Kopiat Challenge, a 700-metre swimming contest to Kopiat island from Beach View; Body painting competition and regatta sailing contest on May 23 in Berioso Beach in Pindasan; water volleyball in the morning and amazing race at Welborn Beach resort in Pantukan; and Bankarera at Magnaga Waters on May 30.

The Kopiat Challenge, Body Paint, Dance Riot, and Fire Dance contests are the latest competitions introduced to the beach festival following the success of the initial beach sports festival last year.

Dubbed The Paint, the body paint is a body art competition all about painting the body based on marine environment themes. "We intend to promote the human skin as a perfect expression our love for the sea that gives us life and for art," Christine T. Dompor, Compostela Valley tourism officer said.

The Regatta is a competition of the ordinary and gaily-decorated out-rigger or non-outrigger boats with colourful sails to conquer the changing wind and sea conditions. "It is our way of paying tribute to the seafaring skills of Filipinos," Ms Dompor explained.

The fire dance is a competition of dancers dancing and gyrating to loud music while swirling and throwing fireballs on string.

The waters between the Mabini coastline and Kopiat island is not as rough or marked with strong currents as those in the open sea, making it convenient as a venue for a simple marathon-like competition to cross the 600-700-meter channel between the coast and the island.

SHARE alongside the PTC and the tourism office of Compostela Valley launched the summer beach sports festival last year to promote the image of the almost-landlocked province as not purely highlands and majestic forests, but also beaches, islands, and rich marine bio-diversity.

"Of course, this is the first such event in the Davao region and we hope to gradually attract many people and visitors to join us in the future so they will have a taste of what Compostela Valley has in store for them in terms of culture, adventure and ecotourism," Dompor said. (tss/ids comval)