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Bloom seasons and flower fields

Panagbenga, the Baguio flower festival

A month-long flower festival in the Philippine highlands, with parades of floats covered in blooms.

Things you see during the Street Dance Parade along Session Road. Feb 28, 2009.
Photo: lolay, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

What it is

Baguio is a mountain city in northern Luzon, cool enough for pines and for the flowers that lowland Philippines cannot grow. Panagbenga means a season of blooming in the Kankanaey language of the region. The festival began in the 1990s to lift the city's spirits after the earthquake of 1990. It runs through February into early March. The high points are a street dancing parade, with performers in flower costumes drawing on the dances of the Cordillera peoples, and a parade of floats covered entirely in fresh flowers. Afterwards the main street is closed to traffic for a week of flower and food stalls.

Before you go

  • The two big parades are usually on the last weekend of February. Confirm the dates.
  • Book lodging well ahead and expect slow traffic up the mountain roads.
  • Stake out a place on the parade route early in the morning.

The flowers you will see

ChrysanthemumAutumn-blooming flower with thousands of varieties, cherished in East Asia and beyondRoseWoody perennial plants with showy, often fragrant flowers in many coloursGolden everlastingPapery yellow or white daisy flowers native to Australia, lasting long after picking

Also part of it, and being written: Helianthus annuus.

Read more

Panagbenga FestivalA month-long flower festival in Baguio, Philippines, each February

More in Philippines

🇵🇭 Manila · All yearDangwa flower marketManila's flower district in Sampaloc, busiest before Valentine's Day and All Saints' Day.
About this page

Original text by the Phool desk, written with AI assistance. Background: "Panagbenga Festival" on Wikipedia. Bloom dates move with the weather, and markets and gardens change their hours: check locally before you travel. If we have something wrong, tell us.

Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

The weekly bunch

Every Monday: what is in bloom, the flower festivals of the week, seven flowers you may not know and one tradition explained.