Baliwag, Bulacan Gears Up for Buntal Festival 2017

One of the notable photos of the Buntal Hat Festival 2009
(Photo credit: The Camera Club of Baliwag at http://cameraclubofbaliwag.weebly.com/buntal-hat.html#)

Baliwag, Bulacan, home of the world-famous buntal hats, gears up for the Buntal Festival 2017. This early, preparations are on deck for famed festival which is slated on May 5-26, 2017.

During the February 13, 2017 preliminary talks of the Buntal Festival Technical Working Group (TWG) spearheaded by Municipal Administrator, Mr. Enrique V. Tagle, at the Conference Room, Municipal Hall Annex, Baliwag, Bulacan, the group resolved to undertake the following meaningful activities:  

1. Pagkilala sa Mga Natatanging Baliwagenyo
2. Furniture Exhibits 
3. Fireworks Display
4. Business Forum
5. Recognition of outstanding tax payers
6. Institutional partners' night
7. Tatak Baliwag Expo
8. Buntal Hat Showcase
9. Float Parade
10. Concert
11. Balik Baliwag
12. Mardigras Costume Parade
13. Ginoo at Binibining Baliwag 2017
14. Fun Run 

The festivities last for the whole month of May 2017 with various activities scheduled everyday. The highlight of the events is the buntal hat showcase. Buntal refers to a very fine white Philippine fiber obtained from the stalks of unopened leaves of the talipot palm (Corypha umbraculifera) which were used in making hats. Originally, the festival was designed to revive the moribund buntal hat industry. Today, however, buntal assumed new symbolism - it exemplifies the skillfulness, creativity, hard-work and patience of the Baliwagenyos. The appreciation of these positive values and traits by the citizens of Baliwag, Bulacan is now the main thrust of the festival.

Buntal hat was historically, Baliwag's most notable product. Throughout the 18th and the 19th century, Baliwag, Bulacan, had been known around the world known as the home of finely-made hats - the Baliwag hat. Sombrero as it was then called by the Spaniards.   

During the American occupation, the hat was known as the Baliwag Bamboo. In 1904, during the Saint Louis World's Fair, one of the products brought to exposition was the Baliwag Bamboo. According to Albert Ernest Jenks, the Baliwag Bamboo is the finest, most wonderful hat weaving to be found in the Orient. Jenks headed the Ethnological Survey for the Philippines.