The La Trinidad Strawberry Festival

Benguet, a landlocked province in Luzon, sits at the southern tip of the Cordillera Administrative Region. As it’s located on the Cordillera mountain range, the province is characterized by its mountainous terrains of peaks and valleys, ridges and canyons, and cool weather all year round. It’s home to the popular “Hagdan-hagdang Palayan” or rice terraces found in Banaue.

The richness of the land coupled with the cold weather earned Benguet its title as the “Salad Bowl of the Philippines”. Many of the country’s fruits and vegetables thrive in this region. There is also a wealth of flowers that end up being transported to different parts of the country. But if there’s one thing Benguet is known for, it’s strawberries.

Every 23rd of March, the capital city of La Trinidad brings out the best of its produce – strawberries. There are over 700 strawberry farms in La Trinidad alone. These farms produce over a thousand metric tons of fruit every year. As a tradition in many parts of the Philippines, the Strawberry Festival is a form of celebration and thanksgiving for a bountiful harvest.

How the Strawberry Festival came about

Photo by ~MVI~ (warped) on Foter.com / CC BY

Former Mayor Hilarion Pawid established the first-ever Strawberry Festival in 1981. Pawid recognized the potential of strawberry farming and staged the first Strawbery festival to encourage farmers to plant the fruit. It proved successful as Benguet is also now known as the “Strawberry Capital of the Philippines”.

The timing was also perfect because only a week prior is the Flower Festival or Panagbenga in Baguio, which is a three-hour drive from La Trinidad. It has become a tradition for many Filipinos to make a festival-filled holiday, visiting both the Flower Festival and the Strawberry Festival in one trip.

Currently, the festival is still widely known as Strawberry Festival, but is officially known as La Trinidad: Panaspulan, which means “cultural gathering”.

The many festivities at the Strawberry Festival

The Strawberry Festival is much-awaited. It has won several tourism awards and has even managed to achieve a Guinness World Record. In 2004, local bakeries baked the biggest strawberry shortcake ever created, weighing at 9,622.23 kg.

La Trinidad offers a whole gamut of activities the entire month. The schedule of events changes every year, but keep an eye out for announcements. It’s not always posted on the city’s official page, but newspapers usually post a schedule ahead of time.

Supporting the locals

The Strawberry Festival is an avenue for the local government and its partners to uplift the community. A massive job fair is held either at the beginning or towards the end of the festival, mostly offering agriculture-related careers. They also celebrate Caballero day, which is a music competition to promote the large pool of talented musicians in the region.

Markets and bazaars

With an abundance of not just strawberries but tons of other fresh produce, the Strawberry Festival won’t be anything without its trade fairs and public markets. Kiosks and stalls set up at the Municipal grounds have vendors selling all sorts of fresh fruits and vegetables, as well as products such as jams, tarts, and pies.

The people of La Trinidad are