“Pistahan” at Yerba Buena

August 14, 2012 Filed under Blogs Posted by TFA Editor

The Filipino community group in San Francisco California staged their two-day “pistahan” over the weekend.

What makes this event significant is that it was held right in the city centre of San Francisco – at the Yerba Buena Arts Centre, something like the equivalent of Hyde Park in Sydney CBD.

The other thing is that the organisers did not charge any fee to get in. Why should they, anyway?

This is probably something that other Filipino groups could learn.

Holding a Philippine fiesta right in the central business district is perhaps more effective than other forms of promotion. It’s just like the Christmas lantern parade which was organised by the Philippine Tourism in Sydney some years back. We thought that was effective in giving mainstream Australia a glimpse of Philippine Christmas-related traditions.

Event notes of the San Francisco fiesta and photos are available in our Community Blogs site.