Fiesta Filipina (also Philippine Festival) began as an annual event commemorating the anniversary of Philippine Independence. The event was held at Seward Park and became part of Seafair, Seattle's ten-week-long summer festival. In 1987 the event was moved to the Seattle Center, where by 1997 it had been renamed Pagdiriwang and become one of the five ethnic and cultural festivals that make up Seattle Center's Festál. As of 2019, the event has grown into the biggest festival of Filipino arts and culture in the Pacific Northwest.
In this image, three women perform the "Bamboo Dance," or Tinikling, at Seafair's Philippine Festival held at Seward Park. The women are identified from the left as: Virginia Ordona, Diana Floresca, and Theresa Ordona. The movements of the two standing dancers as they step in and out of the sticks without getting caught is intended to mimic a bird dancing through the grass.
Caption information source: "A Look Back at Pagdiriwang through the Years," by Ferdinand De Leon, retrieved from https://www.festalpagdiriwang.com/how-we-began Caption information also derived from captions written by Post-Intelligencer staff and attached to the back of the photograph.
Physical Description: 1 photographic print : b&w ; 8 x 10 in.
Additional Information: Digital copy of this item available thanks to funding from a 2016 Institute for Museum and Library Services grant. Metadata updated as part of a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services administered by the Library Services and Technology Act, through the Washington State Library, a division of the Office of the Secretary of State.
Credit: MOHAI, Seattle Post-Intelligencer Collection, 2000.107.062.03.05, photo by Phil H. Webber
