Quezon province's Niyogyugan Festival 2019

Stunning. Pulsating. Exhilarating. These words came to my mind as I recall 
the awesome experience my son and I had when we witnessed Quezon province's Niyogyugan Festival for the first time last Aug. 24-25. Indeed, it was the 
mother of all festivals in my lovely home province, celebrated yearly to pay tribute to the coconut, which is Quezon's lifeblood, being its top agricultural product.

Everything was grand - the float parade, agri-booth exposition, dance showdown, the Bb. Niyogyugan pageant, the delicious food, and the festive ambiance 
all around Lucena City, the capital of Quezon. 

We weren't able to witness all the events as one has to be in Lucena for the most part of the 10-day duration of the festival to be able to do so. We were only there for less than two days but the joy of the experience was already enough to warm our hearts  and give our minds a flood of memories to cherish. 

Here are the highlights of our Niyogyugan Festival 2019 experience :

Float parade and street dancing 

Each float comes after the town or city's banner.

There were so many other floats but sadly, we weren't able to see the others 
because my son was complaining about tired feet so we left about 
halfway through the parade to eat at Buddy's-Pacific Mall. 

Agri-booths

All of Quezon's 39 towns and two cities had a booth, to give you a hint of how grand and well-participated was this year's Niyogyugan. Each booth shows the incredible creativity and ingenuity of Quezonians. All are made out of indigenous and sustainable materials. Inside every one of them are the town's or city's products for sale to the visitors such as various foods and souvenir items. 

The town of Lucban is famous for its "pancit habhab" and Longganisang Lucban 
and people lined up to buy them at its booth. 

The booth below is my top favorite. Just take a closer look at what it's 
made of: dried fish and shells! Marvelous!

Some of the other products for sale at the different booths

The green boxes at the top of the shelf contain Infanta's sought-after "suman", which is the best-selling product during the entire festival. 

Tayabas town's famous Yema Cake and other sweets plus the delicious "sinantol" or ginataang santol which I bought.

Special "tikoy", sinantol and more at the Gumaca booth. 

"Kibit" or seafood chicharon

Fresh vegetables and fruits were also available in many of the agri-booths. 

Native kakanin on sale outside the booths

My son and mine's favorite - the heavenly "pilipit" 

It was a sad thing that we weren't able to finish the parade and see all the floats because we were already tired and our legs were aching. Before the parade started at SM Lucena, we had to walk the long stretch of Quezon Ave. going to the provincial capitol (where the booths were) because this main road was closed, being the route 
of the parade. And then we made the rounds 
of the booths so our feet were already screaming to be put up! 
We also missed the dance showdown that night. Sigh... 
Anyway, prizes were given away to the best agri-booth, float, and streetdance group. Infanta was the festival's overall champion. The town's "suman" was also the best-selling product in all the agri-booths with over P1.5 million total sales during the duration of the event. On the other hand, this year's Bb. Niyogyugan 
beauty pageant title was won by Atimonan. 
What a blast we had at this year's very memorable Niyogyugan Festival! 
I hope to witness it again next year!