First time businesses get boost in Baguio’s annual festival street bazaar

FLORDELIZA Cacho and her daughters sell hand crafted scrap books made of recycled paper materials they source from Barangay Irisan.

BAGUIO CITY—Food and handicraft products displayed annually in the street bazaar called “Session Road in Bloom” here have not been about the “big business boys” for sometime now.

A culminating event of the month-long Panagbenga (Baguio Flower Festival), the bazaar’s 17th staging now includes Jen Castro and Margie Reyes, who put up “Cook Ko Food Mo” to test the city’s gustatory climate.

It also introduces “ACS Salts and Sweets,” developed by Corrie Diasana, who spent up to P100,000 on equipment for the bazaar, hoping it would lead her to doing business through a local mall outlet.

The bazaar was originally conceived as a showcase of Baguio products, which would be accessible to promenaders sitting on benches or around street coffee tables on Session Road, the city’s main street, according to festival organizers.

The Baguio Flower Festival and its component activities, including the street bazaar, were designed in 1995 by lawyer Damaso Bangaoet Jr. as a tourist drawing event to help the city’s economy recover from the July 1990 earthquake.

But local businessmen have discovered the bazaar’s potential as a marketing avenue.

SELLING like “hat cakes.” Native hats made of indigenous materials sell well at the 2012 Session Road in Bloom.

Brand name restaurants and food chains set up tents along Session Road for one week. For one, Mario’s, one of Baguio’s high end restaurants, has been a frequent presence at the bazaar, although its assistant manager, Grace Galvan says it had to embrace the good sales years with the poorly-received years.

This year’s rent for the stalls range from P16,000 to P28,000. Stall owners from as far as Sorsogon spend P10,000 just to travel to the city. Shoe owners from Marikina City spend P20,000 to ship in their wares.

What businesses value most is the attention their products get from the bazaar.

Flordeliza Cacho and her daughters Carla Joy, Yedda Ann Marie and Angelika Jane put up Zabzabale (a play on the Ilocano word for alternative or different) to sell hand crafted scrap books made of recycled paper materials they source from Barangay Irisan, where the city’s decommissioned dump is located.

LAMPSHADES made of coconut shells displayed by JRED Arts And Crafts of Rizal.

“Compared to the other places where we market our products, Baguio gives us the highest amount of sales,” says Lorna Liberato of Krisnan Jay, a shoe store from Marikina City which has been participating in the bazaar since 2002.

This year, governments spent money to bring their businesses to the bazaar.

The Marinduque congressman subsidized Laura Sanchez and other businessmen when they joined the bazaar to display the province’s handicraft products.

The Nueva Ecija government helped Meggie Suncuaco, owner of Delikasi Arts and Craft, a woodcraft shop from San Jose, Nueva Ecija, bring up chandeliers, lamp shades and wall decors.

Christina Cajigan of Tinik Flowers and Plants set up her wares at the street bazaar for the first time this year.

“I want people to experience the joy and satisfaction I feel when I see these colorful [Cymbidium, Azalea, Lemon Pine and Eucaria] flowers,” says Cajigan.

Reports from Justin Marbella, Vaughn Alviar, Charlene Azcueta and Jane de Ocampo, Inquirer Northern Luzon

PHOTOS BY EV ESPIRITU/INQUIRER NORTHERN LUZON