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Philippine festival offers fun and function
PhilFest runs through the weekend in Keystone. Attendees can seek advice from the Philippine Embassy or just enjoy the food, music and dancing.
By AMBER MOBLEY
Published April 7, 2006
KEYSTONE - The feeling of the Philippines will fill the streets of a faux Filipino village starting today and continuing throughout the weekend. The Philippine Cultural Foundation is inviting folks to come celebrate Filipino culture, food, music, dancing and wares at its 11th annual PhilFest. Organizers are expecting up to 20,000 to attend the event at the foundation's Philippine Cultural Enrichment Complex, 14301 Nine Eagles Drive. Many of those folks will be coming from other states to take advantage of services from the Philippine Embassy, said Claire Ick, the foundation's interim executive director. Members of the embassy will be on hand to assist Filipinos with renewing passports, applying for dual citizenship, updating documentation and a variety of other official business. "They're coming from all over - Georgia, Alabama - so they won't have to go all the way to the embassy in Washington, D.C.," Ick said. Embassy staffers will be available for all three days of the festival. But the event isn't all work and no play. Fourteen food vendors will sell authentic Philippine cuisine, and seven craft booths will have wares from the Philippines, Ick said. And, of course, what's a festival without music and dancing? "Yugyugan" or "rocking" is the focus of this year's PhilFest, so there will be plenty of entertainment and music to keep the dancers, professional or novice, rocking to the beat. "In every festival in the Philippines," Ick said, "they dance in the streets in costumes to celebrate a saint, a pet, fruit, flower, anything. This is a simulation to try and replicate this." Admission is $6. Children younger than 6 are admitted free. PhilFest starts at 4 p.m. today and continues until 11 p.m. It runs 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday. For more information, call 813 925-1232. Amber Mobley can be reached at (813) 269-5311 or amobley@sptimes.com.
[Last modified April 7, 2006, 08:15:02]
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