GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/20 April) — It’s all systems go for the city’s annual summer youth festival that is expected to draw around 5,000 participants from the city and the neighboring areas.
Lady Manalo, head of the city sports and games development division, said they have finalized the necessary preparations for the GenSan Summer Youth Festival 2017, which will open on Friday, April 21.
She said they have lined up bigger and grander activities for this year’s festivity, which will run until May 31.
“Everything is all set and we’re now ready for the grand opening,” she said.
A program briefer said the month-long festivity will feature anew various sports clinics and tournaments, performing arts workshops and competitions, and other youth convergence activities.
All events and activities are open to students and out-of-school youths aged 30 years-old and below.
Dubbed “Summerlympics,” the lined up sports activities are: football, boxing, table tennis, sepak takraw, futsal, volleyball, basketball, softball and chess tournaments; and special clinics on basketball, volleyball, rugby football and table tennis.
Manalo said the basketball clinic will be facilitated by a coach from the Jr. NBA or Junior National Basketball Association Philippines program.
The rugby clinic will be spearheaded by a member of the Philippine rugby national team, which also known as the Philippine Volcanoes, she said.
She said around 3,000 youths from the city’s 26 barangays have already signed up to join the “Summerlympics,” which is supported by the Philippine Sports Commission.
On the other hand, Elmer Cequiña, assistant festival director, said the performing arts workshops and competitions will be conducted in the city’s four mayor shopping malls — SM, Gaisano, KCC and Robinsons.
He said the activities include the hip-hop dance competition, spoken word poetry contest; rap battle; rap song contest; voices and beats contest (group a cappella); choral competition; painting contest; beatbox battle championship; cheerdance competition; photography contest; dance sports and ballroom dancing competition; painting workshop; filmmaking workshop; and, photography workshop.
The other major events are the GenSan Summer Youth Camp, National Youth Leaders Conference on Sustainable Development and the Summer Music Camp, he said.
For the opening on April 21, Cequiña said they will hold a “Kabataan Parade” that will be joined by members of youth associations, student organizations, fraternities and sororities based in the city.
He said the parade will start at around 3 p.m. at the KCC Veranza grounds and end at the city oval plaza grandstand for the opening program.
The opening ceremonies will be highlighted by the “youth extravaganza,” which will feature performances from alternative group 1017 band, Markus Paterson of the Pinoy boy band fame, and rappers Loonie and Lil Sisa, he added. (MindaNews)