ILOILO City – Paraw Regatta – the largest sailing event in the Philippines and the oldest “traditional craft event” in Asia – is returning this year after a three-year hiatus due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.
The Iloilo Festivals Foundation, Inc. (IFFI) set the 50th edition of the Paraw Regatta Festival from March 12 to 19.
Dr. Robert Somosa, race director, said they are targeting around 80 paraw racers in the main sailing event on March 19.
The race course stretches some 30 kilometers from Villa Beach in the Arevalo district to Guimaras Island and back to Villa beach.
The regatta, usually held every third Sunday of February, was established primarily to preserve the paraw as a significant link to the earliest period of Ilonggo history.
The paraw is a small boat with two stabilizers and was widely used for travel and trade during ancient times. Up to this day, it is still being used as a means of transport as well a source of livelihood.
A strikingly fast boat, the paraw makes 20 kilometers per hour (kph) to 30 kph through the waves. It was the prototype that inspired Westerners to develop the trimaran, the fastest sailboats now on the planet.
IFFI chairman Rito “Judgee” Peña said Iloilo City is ready to welcome paraw enthusiasts and spectators for this year’s face-to-face staging of the festival.
As one of the innovations for this year’s festival, the race will be lived streamed, said Engineer Fulbert Woo, co-chair of the Paraw Regatta Festival.
Paraw Regatta Festival will officially kick off on March 12 with a solemn mass.
The registration, meanwhile, will start from Feb. 13 until March 3 at Ker Building across the Iloilo City Hall from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
John Lex Bayombong, chair of the Paraw Regatta Festival, said the other events are the following:
* photo contest and miniature paraw-making contest (March 13 to 19),
* Pinta sa Regatta mural painting contest (March 12 to 16),
* job fair (March 13),
* slalom race (March 16),
* pinta layag (March 17 to 18),
* beach volleyball (March 12 to 19),
* Sinamba sa Regatta (March 18), and
* pinta tawo, lechon contest and lighted paraw (March 19).
Last year, Mayor Jerry Treñas vowed to push through the 2023 edition of the festival – one of the main tourist attractions in the city – for its 50th anniversary./PN
