UPDATE: See complete list of Sinulog Festival Queen 2010 Winners here.

Earlier today, a day before their most awaited pageant night, the Sinulog Festival Queens (actually just some of them), sported their complete costumes and strutted out their stuff for the ever-discriminating eyes and cameras at SM City Cebu.

The search for the Sinulog Festival Queen started in 2003. A Festival Queen is the lead dancer of every participating contingent in the Sinulog Grand Parade. The competition is a pageant that is not just all about beauty, but also of brains, skills, and confidence. This is merely a tribute to the hundreds of lead dancers who made the past 29 years of Sinulog very successful.

This year, will a Cebuana finally be crowned as the “ultimate” Sinulog Festival Queen? (Ever since the conception of the Sinulog Festival Queen competition, out-of-towners always bagged the crown) Watch out as the Sinulog Festival Queen Competition 2010 finally happens tomorrow, 7pm, at the Cebu City Sports Center. (The big event will be preceded by the 1st Sinulog Idol Grand Finals at 6pm. Check out the complete schedule here.)

Meanwhile, here are photos of each festival queen in their colorful costumes:

Candidate #1: from Banilad National High School

Candidate #2: from Don Vicente Rama Memorial National High School, Basak-Pardo

Candidate #3: from Liloan National High School

Candidate #4: from Pardo Elementary School

Candidate #5: from Silaw Culture and Arts, Carcar

Candidate #6: from Pintaflores Festival, San Carlos City, Negros Occidental

Candidate #7: from Land of Beauty and Bounty, Lanao del Norte

Candidate #8: from Tribu Sinanduloy, Tangub City, Misamis Occidental

Candidate #9: from Abellana National High School

Candidate #10: from Placer, Masbate

Candidate #11: from Guadalupe Elementary School

This year, it would be the first time that the reigning Sinulog Festival Queen would pass her throne to the winner that would be declared during the competition tomorrow evening. And here she is, Sinulog Festival Queen 2009, Miss Iris Mae Linganay of Tribu Sinanduloy, Tangub City, Misamis Occidental.

At the end of the pre-pageant night earlier, two special awards (that have no bearing whatsoever on the real competition tomorrow evening) were given and they are..

Best in Runway:
Candidate #4: from Pardo Elementary School

The Northwing’s Cebu! Cebu! Award: (chosen by the SM City Cebu administration)
Candidate #6: from Pintaflores Festival, San Carlos City, Negros Occidental

Do you want to see more of the Festival Queens? I intentionally chose not to post the best photos so you’ll watch them tomorrow at the Sinulog Festival Queen 2010 Competition at the Cebu City Sports Center, 7pm, ADMISSION IS FREE!

Pit Senyor!

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ON ITS seventh year, the search for the Sinulog Festival Queen will have better pageantry, as well as a grander prize.

Vince Escario, chairman of the Sinulog Festival Queen pageant, said organizers were beefing up the search because it was not just a battle of beauty and dancing skills, but was also a way of showcasing the different cultures of the Philippines, not just Cebu.

Sinulog Festival Queen 2009 – Iris Mae Linganay of Tribu Sinanduloy, Tangub City

“This is also the day to get a preview of what is going to happen in Sinulog. It is where tourists can get excerpts of the dance, the musicality, and what kind of costumes the contingents have,” Escario said.

This year, organizers are dangling P50,000 as the grand prize for the festival queen competition. Second place gets P30,000 and P20,000 for the third place.

Last year, the Festival Queen received P30,000 while runners up received P20,000 and P10,000.

Escario said the increase in prizes was partly due to the increase in the number of sponsors for the competition.

“The sponsors are clamoring to sponsor the pageant. We are very much on safe ground. We wouldn’t have the audacity to increase the prizes if we were not sure of our finances,” Escario said.

The Sinulog Festival Queen competition will be held on Jan. 15.

Also a first for this year, the reigning Festival Queen will be the one to crown her successor.

“The important thing is that the contestants can project the sincere joy and fulfillment Queen Juana must have felt when she received the Santo Niño. The Festival Queen is the modern day Queen Juana,” said Escario, referring to the Christian name of Hara Amihan, wife of Cebu’s 16th century chieftain Rajah Humabon, who welcomed Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan in 1521.

The deadline to apply for entry into the Festival Queen competition is on Jan. 13. The competition is open to contestants between 14 and 24 years of age, and part of a contingent for the Sinulog.

In the Sinulog’s 30th anniversary this year, festival organizers said they hoped that a Cebuana would take the crown this time.

In the previous six pageants, the crown has been won by out-of-town contestants.

Article source: Cebu Daily News

CebuDaily.com Exclusive: Watch out for Sinulog Festival Queen features and documentaries by SunStar and I-Witness (GMA-7)

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