![]() ![]() ![]() Luckily, the idea was a hit and tourists started buying the masks as they were light and easy to bring around. Originally, these masks were created just to be sold to tourists and to generate income, and not for a festival that they were yet to conceptualize. The colorful masks created by the local residents were supposedly a signature souvenir of the province and to get the attention of foreign visitors. The Arts Association of Bacolod-Negros, headed by Rodney Martinez, conducted workshops around Negros and taught the residents on how to make masks using coconut husks and paper mâché. The smiling masks were a declaration of the people of Bacolod City that they will pull through and survive the challenges and tragedies that they are facing. To lift the spirits of the locals and bring back the smiles on their faces, the MassKara Festival was created. It was also the time when a tragic ferry accident happened, which carried mostly people from the province including those from prominent families of Bacolod. It was during the time when the province's main livelihood, sugar, was priced at an all-time low because of alternatives introduced in the market, which resulted in one of the worst famines in the country's history that affected an estimated one million people. ![]() ![]() The MassKara Festival can trace its roots back to the 1980s and was born out of a crisis. ![]()
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