The Colorado Dragon Boat Festival was held last July 28-29 at the Sloan's Lake Park , Denver, CO.
It was a fun event, with a lot of things happening at the same time! We went last Sunday, at around 2PM. I was really excited to go because there was a Philippines booth there (I even announced it to the whole cast so that they may get the opportunity to experience a bit of Pinoy flavor) and I was looking forward to speaking Tagalog and maybe getting a Philippine flag to add on to the UWP collection.
The place was vibrant with a lot of colorful sights and wonderful smells. There were stalls selling merchandise from places like Thailand, China, India, etc.. And the selection of food stalls was overwhelming and everything had a long line! As we walked further in, we were able to catch a breakdancing exhibition and the history of hip hop and breakdancing. Interesting that the movements actually came from "gang wars", hence the "chopping movement" of the hands and that intimidating hip hop attitude.
We entered a Mongolian "yurt" -- it is a low ceiling portable tent used by nomads. And we were also made to try "horse milk" -- an alternative to beer in the Mongolian culture. I did not taste it but Lesley and my host mom did and they said it was .. NASTY! I did taste some of the Mongolian snacks and some were really good except for one (ugh). I tried fighting the taste with a sip of the Mongolian milk tea, which was not good either .. hehe. I guess I'm just used to the sweet tea, and was not too prepared for a salty kind of tea.
It was great seeing the Philippine booth! They had a musical instrument called "agong" , which all the while I thought was called "kumintang"! Wonderful to learn something new about my country while I am away! There were several exhibits and photos of traditional Philippine culture such as our games, etc. People can come in and try our native "Sungka" (kind of like the African game Mancala?) and kids can try and draw the Philippine flag.
We were there just in time for the Tinikling demonstration and the Rondalla presentation. Way cool. It was also nice meeting Filipinos there too , however, it would have been nicer if they can speak Tagalog! Most are 2nd generation Fil-Ams that can't (or won't?) speak the language.
We were also able to catch a Filipino rock band perform songs like "Laklak", "Narda", "No Touch" (pahipo naman... pahawak naman...) --> personally, I did not like their selection of songs! I asked one of them after, why not Eraserheads? I didn't get a clear response though :-)
We stayed and saw all the acts - and saw several interesting ones! The Hula Dancers, Indian dances, Acrobatic martial arts, a Chinese guitar player (i forgot what her instrument was called!) and the best part was the Taiko Drums!
Taiko, which means "big drum" in Japanese, is the art of ensemble drumming -- and it looked really great ! The group sets up huge drums on the stage and pounded on them skillfully and they looked awesome!
Just before we drove home, we were able to get Philippine "Lumpiang Shanghai" (they call 'em egg rolls!) with some sweet chili sauce. Yum, and it was 6 pieces for a dollar too! I was happy that Lesley and Laurie liked them!
I wasn't able to get a big Philippine flag, tho -- but they gave me a smaller one ;-)
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