Beside the agricultural and tourism booth of the town of Alicia was its giant bambanti (scarecrow) installation, made of dry rice stalks and grains, depicting a farmer holding a bigao, a woven winnowing pan. It wore a hat and skirt in rainbow colors.

“The municipality of Alicia boasts of gender sensitivity. This shows that Alicia wants to include the LGBTQ+ in its ascension to progress. Let us not belittle the economic contributions of this group in the town,” its statement said.

For the first time, representation of the LGBTIQ+ community was clearly expressed in a giant bambanti installation, as the Bambanti Festival 2025 highlighted inclusion. The bambanti as well as the booth highlighted the town being as the “rice granary” of lsabela.

Alicia’s booth was one of the 34 agricultural and tourism booths with giant bambanti installations that participated in the trade and tourism fair at the Bambanti Village. The fair was one of the most attended attractions of the Bambanti Festival of the province of Isabela in northern Luzon.

Inspired by the scarecrow, called bambanti in Ilocano, and said to pay homage to agriculture and workers, the festival was created in 1997 and has grown to be the biggest touristic and cultural event in the Cagayan Valley Region with a series of events and activities including the fair.

Most modern and local government-organized festivals in the Philippines feature trade fairs, where local products and cultures are showcased. Many have booths of different barangays or towns, and over time, these booths become more spectacular and attractions themselves. Competitions among the best booths are also held.

The Bambanti Village is a prominent example. Aside from the booths, mostly made of local materials, the village also sports giant installations of the bambanti or its interpretations.

In this year’s celebration, which was held from 19 to 25 January, the Bambanti Village was again set up at Isabela Provincial Capitol Compound, serving as a one-stop destination of the province’s best offerings and drawing crowds. At night, the booths lit up, delighting visitors who took endless selfies.

Booth inspirations

The fair also became a venue for artists, designers and craftsmen to showcase their creativity.

The booth of San Pablo featured its heritage structures — the casa real and the Ruins of Saint Paul the Apostle Parish Church — as well as a local product, chicharong baka, which covered the booth and bambanti installation.

The colorful booth of Roxas sported a crown that depicted the vegetables and other ingredients used in making the Ilocano dish pinakbet, as the town regularly holds the Pinakbet Festival. Its bambanti installation was in the form of the wasay-wasay or praying mantis to symbolize “the resilience, industriousness and solidarity of our people to build a stronger and more progressive Isabela sa Bagong Pilipinas” and their thanksgiving to God.

Another insect was the inspiration behind the booth of Tumauini, described as “abaling head-shaped structure crafted from banig (palm),” explaining that the “abaling or tateg (salagubang in Tagalog) is the grub or larva of the abal-abal or sibbaweng. They come out from the soil in the month of May after the early rains have softened the ground. These are usually found and gathered near or on river banks in the rainy seasons which only lasts for two weeks. It is considered as exotic food in Cagayan Valley.”

Its bambanti installation showed how abaling is an agricultural pest, explaining that it “highlights the locals’ appreciation for nature’s duality. The abaling insect, though considered a pest, is also a sought-after exotic delicacy among the Ibanags. Deep fried abaling is a flavorful and beloved dish, symbolizing the community’s ability to turn adversity into opportunity.”

The Maconacon booth’s design was “inspired by the ruins of industrial buildings and the long stretch of the rain forest of Sierra Madre,” explaining that the “remnants of the company named Acme, owned by Filipino and Chinese businessmen, can still be found in the barangay of Malasin” and that the town was called a “city in the jungle” because of “Acme Group of Firms’ presence in the 1960s as a producer of plywood and other wood by-products, a significant economic driver and providing thousands of jobs in the area.”

“Apart from the economic and employment contribution from 1965 to 1992, Sierra Madre mountain range was exploited due to the volume of trees cut down to the processed and converted into products. A group of rebels or NPA assaulted and destroyed the entire factory in December 1992, leaving behind ashes, coals and smoldering equipment,” the booth’s information sheet said. “Years after the destruction, nature began its quiet yet determined healing process. As the once-bustling remnants of the logging company were slowly reclaimed by the land, with vines, trees and shrubs weaving through the decaying structures as if nature was rewriting the story.”

Maconacon’s bambanti installation depicted the Philippine eagle, explaining that the eagle’s “presence in the municipality is an indication that the forest is still a healthy environment and a haven for various wildlife species,” and that it “represents courage, strength and greatness of the Maconaconian people despite the natural disasters…”

The booth of the provincial capital, Ilagan, promoted as the “Corn Capital of the Philippines,” was described to be “in its ultra-modern, minimalist design,” while the bambanti installation was said to be a “work of art in its amazing stylized body-form of twirled wires — truly an image of modernization in the tradition of the old, amidst the vast farm lands, corn fields and grazelands.”

The rest of the booths also had their own stories to tell about their towns, making the village also a venue for learning.

Winners

The best booths and giant bambanti installations were recognized on 24 January, during the finale of the Bambanti Festival street dancing competition. Two set of winners were revealed for the booths and installations — in Category A (for cities and first-class municipalities) and in Category B (for second-, third-, fourth- and fifth-class municipalities).

Ilagan City clinched the first place in Category A of the Best Agri-Tourism Booth, followed by Cauayan City (second place), Alicia (third), Tumauini (fourth) and Palanan (fifth). In Category B, Cordon emerged victorious. Also recognized were San Pablo (second place), Quezon (third), Divilacan (fourth) and Maconacon (fifth).

In the Best Giant Bambanti Installation, Ilagan City again bagged the first place in Category A while Gamu topped Category B. Other winners were Alicia (second place), Tumauini (third), Cauayan City (fourth) and Jones (fifth) in Category A, and Cordon (second), Luna (third), San Agustin (fourth) and Quezon (fifth) in Category B.