Gallery: Philippines MassKara Festival

The MassKara Festival is in its 31st year of continued celebration. An idea born from a period of tragedy and crisis, it was seen as a way to unify the people of Bacolod in the face of adversity. 

MassKara is combination of two words: mass, meaning many, or multitude, and kara, a Spanish word for face. So MassKara means a mass or multitude of smiling faces.

A quick 50-minute flight from Manila, the island of Negros in the Western Visayas Region is home to Bacolod City. It is known as the City of Smiles, a fact clearly defined by the MassKara Festival’s joyous participants.

The three-week festival culminates on the third week of October in a weekend of parades, dance, celebration, and feasts jaunting down the packed streets of Bacolod.

Hundreds of performers create a cascade of colorful masks, glimmering costumes, and rhythmic dance.

The party continues well into the early hours of dawn, and yet when the sun rises, the streets are wiped clean and the remnants of the festivities are scoured from the city. 

What remains is the unmasked, beaming faces of the people of Bacolod, welcoming guests to share in their rejoicing of life, encouraging visitors to smile with them.

Wielding a photo of himself and enough body paint to smother a supermodel three times over, this character is a regular attraction at MassKara.

The people of Bacolod take their fun seriously, with performers studiously concentrating on the dance choreography.

The festival rose from a period of tragedy, enabling the people of Bacolod to come together while they face adversity.

The smiling masks are not a façade for straight faces. Behind every mask is yet another grin.

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The equatorial sun beats down on the performers throughout the afternoon, urging this little boy to pause briefly between dance routines.

The festival performers are of all ages, unified by a desire to celebrate.

The intricately designed masks are all handmade, many created from molded clay or papier-mache.

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Hundreds of performers dance through the streets of Bacolod, each group displaying a distinctive costume, form of dance, and choice of music.

This group of girls donning black and white costumes twirl and whirl with energy and grace, their costumes and choreography among the crowd's favorites.

The MassKara performers are represented by schools, civic associations, commercial groups, private and even government organizations.