Minimum health safety protocols and the online or virtual setup for this year´s Higalaay Festival will prevent any crowding of people in all of its events, Cagayan de Oro City Mayor Oscar Moreno assured Wednesday noon, August 4.
“Lest we forget, the city fiesta is primarily religious in nature and the highlight this month is the installation of Archbishop Jose Cabantan as chief shepherd of the Archdiocese of Cagayan de Oro,” Mayor Moreno said.
Archbishop Cabantan will replace outgoing Archbishop Antonio Ledesma in simple rites to be held on August 28. “Of course I met with the city police and the Incident Management Team of the City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Department (CDRRMD) to finalize security measures for the event to prevent overcrowding,” Mayor Moreno said.
City Tourism Chief Chedilyn Aissa Dulguime earlier said that they will disclose more details of the core and parallel events for this year´s Higalaay Festival which she assured will be held online through its Facebook page that was launched last Monday afternoon.
The online staging of events like the Kumbira Food Festival will also be held via Facebook Live in keeping with minimum health standards, Dulguime said.
Both Dulguime and Mayor Moreno assured that product sellers will still be allowed to sell their merchandise to the public with Dulguime saying this will be done through the festival´s Facebook page.
The Miss Cagayan de Oro pageant will also be held online while the annual fluvial parade will only feature 10 participants instead of last year´s 50 contingents.