Ilagan City, Isabela—The province of Isabela has set a new world record for the largest gathering of people dressed as scarecrow dancerduring the celebration of the 2019 Bambanti Festival here last Friday.
Paulina Sapinska, the official adjudicator and representative of the Guinness Book of World Records, proclaimed that the 2,495 dancers in scarecrow costumes gathered in a single venue, the Isabela Sports Complex, set the new record.
“Subsequently, on perceiving the event and proper confirmation, the Bambanti Festival set the new world record for largest dressed scarecrow dancers,” she stressed.
Sapinska noted that the participants, who came from the province’s 25 towns, danced non-stop for more than two hours around the Isabela grandstand, easily beating the five-minute dance of at least 250 persons earlier awarded by Guinness.
Isabela Governor Faustino “Bojie” Dy III and Vice Governor Antonio “Tonypet” Albano received the certificate given by the Guinness adjudicator.
Dy said: “This is another milestone in the history of Isabela that through this world record attempt, it has proven the unity among Isabelans being portrayed in this momentous Bambanti festival.”
Albano congratulated all the participants of the festival celebrating the Bambanti—the Ilocano word for scarecrow—saying it was another global achievement of the province known as one of the country’s top rice and corn producers.
To become the record-breaker as specified by the Guinness adjudicators, the participants had to have used a straw or cloth hat, straw hair, long-sleeved top and trousers covered with patches for their costumes. The straw must stick out from the hand and feet holes of their clothes, and the dancers must also wear a scarecrow mask or have their faces painted like a scarecrow.
The Bambanti Festival is the Isabelinos’ thanksgiving for their consistently abundant agricultural harvest.
The Festival has been awarded as the Best of All Festivals for three consecutive years by the Aliw Festival. It officially kicked off Tuesday with a Thanksgiving Mass at the St. Michael Parish Church in Gamu, Isabela.
The festivity has showcased the province’s natural charm and culture and its increasingly expanding economy, Governor Dy said.
Lawyer Noel Manuel Lopez, the provincial administrator, said the event seeks to keep Isabela’s status as an investment haven in Luzon.
Bannered by the “Victory of Isabela Spirit” (Tagumpay ng Pusong Isabela), the festival highlights all the victories the province has achieved through creative concepts and images.
This year’s feast capitalizes on the province’s gains in agriculture, tourism, and other drivers of the economy, Lopez said.
