IT was a question of who danced best that, by some providence, also became another question of who danced best — in the rain.

Mapandan and Agoo street dancers in the recently-concluded Bangus Festival showed they deserved the honors, respectively, bagging the grand prizes in the first and second categories of P150,000 each in the highly successful “Festivals of the North”staged last weekin Dagupan City.

Mapandan dancers thrilled the crowd no end with their well-choreographed dance in their own “Pandan Festival” while garbed in their colorful costumes to capture the top prize in the first category.

On the other hand, Agoo took the grand prize in the second category with a superb execution of its Igorot dance, to the tune of gangsa, in their own “Dinengdeng Festival”.

At least 16 festival dancing champions in the Ilocos region saw action in the contest, which was rained out when dancers were already making their focal presentations at Dagupan City Plaza.

Although dancing was momentarily stopped, the dancers as well as the thousands of spectators stayed on at the city plaza despite the rain.

Up to 300,000 people lined the streets and packed the Dagupan City Plaza for a chance to see the 16 festivals street dancing champions in the region perform at close range.

The competition was covered live by community channel USATV (Urban Satellite Vision Inc. to allow Dagupenos and the Pangasinenses to see the competition in their homes.

The rain became very providential to the participants as the generous organizers decided to classify the competitors into two separate categories, the first group of which performed before the rain and second, after the rain.

Mapandan went home with more money than the grand prize when it was adjudged as best in costumes for a special prize of P20,000.

Mapandan Mayor Jose Ferdinand Calimlim received both prizes, He urged the officials of Dagupan City to stage another “Festival of the North”, which was a really tourist-drawer.

Laoag City, which represented the ‘Pamulinawen Festival’ bagged the first runner-up prize in the first category for P80,000 and another P20,000 for having been adjudged as best street dancers in the parade.

Trailing Laoag was host Dagupan City, representing the Bangus Festival, for P60,000, followed by Umingan which topped in its own ‘Kalansay Payyak/Manok Festival’ fjor P40,000, and Sto. Tomas, representing the Corn Festival, was fourth runner-up for P20,000.

San Fernando City, representing the ‘Pindangan Festival’, trailed Agoo in the second category for P80,000, followed by Infanta winner of the “Manga Festival” for P60,000 while Binmaley bagged the third runner-up prize of P40,000; and San Carlos City winners of the Mango, Bamboo Festival, was fourth runner-up fjor P20,000.

The trophies and cash awards for each category were handed to the winners by Vice Mayor Belen Fernandez and Councilor Alfie Fenandez, chairperson and vice chairperson of the Dagupan Bangus Festival 2008, respectively.