Since its inception in 2004, only representatives of out-of-town contingents were named as Sinulog Festival Queen! The seven-year reign of the out-of-town contingents was broken last year, when a Cebuana, Steffi Rose Pearson Aberasturi of Lumad Basakanon, won as Sinulog Festival Queen 2011. It’s a back-to-back win for Lumad Basakanon as their lead dancer this year, Apriel Smith, won as Sinulog Festival Queen 2012 at the Sinulog Festival Queen Competition held earlier at the Cebu City Sports Center.

Steffi Rose Pearson Aberasturi - Sinulog Festival Queen 2011

The search for the Sinulog Festival Queen aims to look for the best female lead dancer based on how they carry themselves as they carry the image of the Sto. Niño while they dance. This year’s staging had 14 participants.

The event was scheduled to start at 7:30pm but heavy rain affected the grand finals of Sinulog Musicfest Band Competition and Sinulog Best Dance Crew which were supposed to be held at Fuente Osmeña so both events had to be transferred to the Cebu City Sports Center and precede the Festival Queen Competition.The main event only started at 9pm.

The Cebu City Sports Center was really full! I guess the attendance earlier was the most for any staging of the Festival Queen Competition.

This year, there were four main parts of the competition: first was the opening production number, then followed the group production, which is basically a 2-minute preview of what these groups will bepresenting on Sunday during the Sinulog Grand Parade, third was the solo performance where the leaddancer portrays how one should carry the image of the Senyor Sto. Niño, and lastly, the showdown, where each candidate danced on stage in threes.

This is my 3rd time to attend the Festival Queen Competition and I really try to spare some time for this event as the performances by each group would give you an idea of who to look out for in the Sinulog Grand Parade. This year, two groups really caught my eye and they are Tribu Himag-ulaw of Placer, Masbate and Tribu Lingganay of Alang-Alang, Leyte. A few days ago, I saw a feature report in a local news program wherein the choreographer of Tribu Himag-ulaw shared that their theme for this year is to portray “wildlife”. I really did not expect that they would go all out as they had dancers dressed as life-size tigers, lions, crocodiles, giraffe, gorilla, and zebra among others. It was like a zoo on stage! Meanwhile, I saw how Tribu Lingganay performed at last year’s Kasadyaan Festival of Festivals in Leyte. (They were the winning group in Kasadyaan 2011 by the way) and I was really surprised by the vast improvement of the group in such a short span of time. The costumes are way different from what they wore last year, and they had more elaborate, eye-popping props! I really had goosebumps when they performed that I almost cried, LOL.

Land of Beauty and Bounty, Lanao del Norte

Pasaka Festival of Tanauan, Leyte

Anyway, here are the winners of Sinulog Festival Queen 2012!

PRE-PAGEANT – held yesterday at the Northwing, SM City Cebu

Best in Runway – #4 Shekina Rose Lasola (Sandurot Festival, Dumaguete City)
SM City Cebu Glamour Girl – #4 Shekina Rose Lasola (Sandurot Festival, Dumaguete City)

FESTIVAL QUEEN 2012

Corporate Awards:

Miss Photogenic – #5 Bulacao Community School
Miss PLDT – #13 Apriel Smith (Lumad Basakanon)

Sandurot Festival of Dumaguete City

2012 Shopwise by Rustan’s Queen – epitomizes the good life – #4 Shekina Rose Lasola (Sandurot Festival, Dumaguete City)
Miss Teletech – #4 Shekina Rose Lasola (Sandurot Festival, Dumaguete City)
Miss Globe – #4 Shekina Rose Lasola (Sandurot Festival, Dumaguete City)

SPECIAL AWARDS:

Best in Festival Costume (solo) -#13 Apriel Smith (Lumad Basakanon)

Lumad Basakanon
Best Festival Costume (group) – #13 Apriel Smith (Lumad Basakanon designed by Danny Booc)
Best Instrumentalists – #7 Conchitina Cleofe Cloma Yu (Tribu Lingganay of Alang-Alang, Leyte)
Best Solo Performer – #13 Apriel Smith (Lumad Basakanon)

Tribu Lingganay
Best in Group Performance – #7 Conchitina Cleofe Cloma Yu (Tribu Lingganay of Alang-Alang, Leyte)
Best in Opening Production Number – #4 Shekina Rose Lasola (Sandurot Festival, Dumaguete City)