1st Korean-Ilonggo Fest to feature Ilonggo, Korean cultures

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The blending of Ilonggo and Korean cultures will feature a weeklong festival in Iloilo City on September 17 to 22.

Dubbed the Korean-Ilonggo Friendship Festival, the event is first of its kind in the country, officials of the Iloilo City government said.

City Tourism Officer Ben Jimena said they have long been planning to organize the event that aims to strengthen friendship between the Koreans and the Ilonggos.

Jimena said the event is a cross-cutting of cultural fusion of the Koreans and the Ilonggos and would create greater awareness of the presence of the former in Iloilo.

He said Koreans are the city's top foreign visitors, with 3,000 Korean populace in this city and 70 percent of them are students.

The festival’s organizers will bring in artists and models from Korea to perform, among them the Step Girl and Karen groups and the XLR8. The festival concert will be at the Central Philippine University Gym.

There will also be mall exhibits and fashion shows at SM City Iloilo during the festival week, that will feature culture, places and dresses of Korea. A food festival at Delgado Street on September 22 will also offer Korean and Ilonggo cuisines.

Meanwhile Moon Dae Jin or Tiger Moon, vice president of the Iloilo Korea United Community Association Inc. said they are happy to have chosen Iloilo and they will campaign for more Koreans to come here.

“The festival would surely attract our compatriots,” Tiger Moon said.

Tourism Officer-in-Charge Regional Director Helen Catalbas said she lauded the endeavor for this will surely increase the city’s tourism statistics and receipts.

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