Its the parade of glamorous costumes, from its headpiece down to their shoes. Mostly their costumes embedded with feathers, lots of sequence in various colors and etc. The more color they get the more glamour they are the more chances of winning.
“Rampada,” a name taken from the two Cebuano words “rampa” in reference to doing a show and “kalsada” which means streets, is a competition and it comes with a great prize. The contingents composed from different parts of Lapu-Lapu City and neighboring cities and islands. As for this year 2017 there are a total of 16 contingents that well truly satisfy your eyes.
Each group must have the Reyna Bulakna, the wife of Lapu-Lapu. This is one of peoples most anticipated the Bulaknas, she can be easily recognize right away as they have their own costume, the most glamorous in the group and always with Lapu-Lapu.
This event is one of the anticipated event for she-males, as they can literally show their talent in dancing wearing those huge headpieces and all. They always gives happiness to people, cause I personally like the way they move with their facial expressions and the passion that they give to these kind of event.
After the parade on the street there will be a little break time, for the participants to gain energy, do some retouching for the final showdown, that will happen inside the Hoopsdome, the indoor arena of Lapu-Lapu City.
While waiting for the final Rampa, people can chill and fill some energy too by eating some of Filipinos street foods like barbeque's and letchon.
After filling in their stomach, people are starting to gather in the venue for the show. Where the contingents will give all their best. Showing those dance choreography the props and all other stuff.
The thing about this event is that, lights matter. Yes light effects is the thing, it gives more credit to the judges and into the crowd. Again the more lights the more chances of winning. Then they have to make sure that their light effects must always match to their dance to give more wow factor.
As what I've just said people always has their eyes for the Reyna Bulaknas in each group. They hold the factor that could make their group wins. The Bulakna must not be just the pretty face but also how she carries herself, literally how she wear gracefully her costume while doing the dance with the facial expressions.
Watching Rampada is truly worth it, even if it finish beyond 12 midnight. The music the costume the happy faces of all the dancers and the crowd are really worth it. Then after the showdown there will be an after party on the streets, and in my case I went home right after since we need to get up early as 2:30 to fly to the airport. Well anyway if you want to watch Rampada make sure to have your camera fully charge or your phone and if you have an extra battery pack much better. So, let's see next year's Rampada.
