CABUGAO, Ilocos Sur – Everything is set for the “Intayon Cabugao” Festival slated from April 18-27 to be attended by over 1,500 balikbayan and their families from all over the world.

Mayor Dioceasar S. Suero said the Sakada centennial celebration marking the 100 years of migration of Filipino sugar workers to Hawaii, and the Global Homecoming and Reunion of Cabugao residents now living abroad, will be the festival highlights.

Suero said the ‘Intayon Cabugao’ Festival is a yearly celebration started in 2002 to provide opportunities for overseas residents of the town and their respective families to come home and sample their townmates’ hospitality.

Cabugao, dubbed “Boracay of the North” due to its white sand beaches, was chosen to host the Global Reunion of Cabugenians this year, a yearly event launched in Los Angeles, California in 1995.

Among the events lined up during the 10 – day festivities are: street dancing festival with the theme ‘Sala Sakada sa Kalsada’; the sisterhood signing between Cabugao and Maui Company in Hawaii by Cabugao Mayor Suero and Mayor Allan Arakawa of Maui, Hawaii; wreath-laying of Sakda Monument at Salomague Port; crowning of Mrs. Sakada 2006;

Basketball exhibition featuring Ex-PBA players led by Cabugao-native professional basketball star Sonny Cabatu; athletic competition featuring the first Mayor’ Cup Invitational Amateur Boxing Tournament in Ilocos Sur, the 12-kilometer Sakada run, and Mountain Bike Track Competition and other indigenous sports like kite-flying contest; Zarsuela Ilokana and the CIPAG cultural shows featuring the “sakada”.

There will also a marching band competition, search for Cabugao Idol 2006, a medical mission and aerobics and fun walk.

The feast day of the town’s patron saint, Saint Mark, will be highlighted by a ‘Diana’ at dawn along the streets of the poblacion to signify the reign of peace on the town.

A ‘Diana’ is an indigenous culture and tradition done by playing a peace awakening music along the streets at a very early morning through a local marching band.

It be recalled that Cabugao played an important role in the Filipino Migration to Hawaii in 1906 because it was at Salomague Port here where the last batch of Filipino migrants, consisting of 6,000 Ilocanos, left for Hawaii in 1946 on board SS Maunawili.