SFI bares guidelines for 2023 Sinulog Higante and Puppeteer contests

Participants of this year’s Sinulog Puppeteer competition are assured of double the amount of prizes. | CDN File Photo

CEBU CITY, Philippines — In less than a month, hundreds of thousands of Cebuano locals and tourists are expected to gather at the South Road Properties (SRP) for the comeback of the in-person Sinulog Festival, now hosted by the entire Cebu island.

From various Sinulog street dancing, grand showdown, and floats, expectators can also look forward to the return of the Sinulog Higantes and Puppeteers.

The Sinulog Foundation Inc. (SFI) has recently released the guidelines for the Higante and Puppeteers competitions, with other Sinulog-related competitions.

Puppeteers Guidelines

The SFI assigned “The Tapestry of Dreams” as the theme of the Puppeteers contest in January 2023.

“The parade shall be a festival combining color, music, and larger-than-life puppetry. The puppets dance together with the audience in the carousel route. Each puppet’s specific movements should emphasize its distinct character,” the SFI said noting that the puppet’s size should be between 10 to 18 feet high with the wingspan not exceeding 16 feet wide.

The puppet, the SFI said, should be colorful and depicting children’s fantasies but not obscene, immoral, or grim-faced.

The registration fee for the contest is P1,000.

The SFI, however, said that if there are less than six contestants, the category will be deemed “no contest.”

Contestants will be judged according to level of creativity/artistry/use of colors (30 percent), originality (30 percent), relevance to the theme (20 percent), and overall impact (20 percent).

Champions will win P75,000, while P50,000 and P30,000 go to the second and third placers, respectively.

Higante Guidelines

Meanwhile, the SFI encourage participants to create historical characters relevant to Sinulog as Higante figures.

The SFI said it will need at least 10 registered contestants for this category, and only those higantes powered and propelled by a person or people inside its structural framework will be allowed to participate.

Depicting the image of Señor Sto. Niño or any religious icon as higante entry is also not allowed in the contest.

The registration period will be until January 13, 2023.

The criteria for judging are creativity/artistry (30 percent), relevance to Sinulog (20 percent), originality (25 percent), overall impact (15 percent), and discreet use of advertisement (10 percent).

The SFI allocates P75,000 for the first prize, P50,000 for the second prize, and P30,000 for the third prize.

/bmjo

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