Marching bands blew their tarnished brass winds. Majorettes moved in rhythm with booming bass drums and tittering whisks of the lyres. Every passerby and visitor craned their necks as they watched Tarlac unfold in living colors in this loud and lively street dancing parade.

‘BELAT!’

Behind the tribal dance beat and colorful costumes is the rich history and heritage of Tarlac, the "Melting Pot Province" which is home to different cultures and ethnolinguistic groups such as Kapampangans, Ilocanos, Pangasinenses, Tagalogs, Filipino-Chinese, as well as Visayans and Filipino Muslims who have migrated from the south.

Now on its second year, Malatarlak Festival is the new name given to "Tarlac City Fiesta," wherein the highlight of the celebration is the Procession of Saint Sebastian, the Patron Saint of the Diocese of Tarlac. But to give emphasis on the history and identity of the province rooted from our original ancestors identified as Negritos or Aetas, organizers picked the name Malatarlak Festival to distinguish the fiesta from the Feast of San Sebastian.

Mayor Genaro Mendoza said that although the name of the City Fiesta was changed into Malatarlak Festival in order to encourage non-Catholics to get involved in the January affair, still the nucleus of the merry-making is deeply embedded on the religiosity of the Catholics who are predominant in the city.

Malatarlak Festival is based from an old legend. Tarlac got its name from the word "malatarlak", an Aeta term for the cogon-like weeds that used to grow in what was once a forested flatland of the province.

At one time during the Spanish era, the legend goes, a group of Spaniards passed by and upon meeting some short, dark-skinned, curly-haired people called Aetas, they inquired the name of the place. Unable to communicate with the natives, the Spaniards instead made motions with their hands pointing on the ground. Thinking that they were asking for the name of the weeds, the Aetas answered, "Malatarlak."

Since then, the place was called Malatarlak. But in time, "mala" was dropped from it because of two alleged reasons. The first is said to be because the Spaniards could hardly pronounce the word. The second is that "mala" in Spanish means "bad," which is related to the Tagalog word "malas," meaning "bad luck."

This is the reason why the Spaniards, and of course, the first inhabitants of Tarlac, dropped "mala" from Malatarlak and instead chose to call the place Tarlak. The name Tarlak later evolved into Tarlac when the Americans arrived in the Philippines.

With this in mind, Mayor Mendoza organized a meeting where representatives from the provincial tourism industry, artists sector, and the city council convened to conceptualize ideas on how to celebrate the history of Tarlaqueños. They also sought help from the Department of Tourism to intensify the promotion of the festival.

Last year, the city government of Tarlac successfully launched Malatarlak Festival with the goal not only to promote the festival, but also to present Tarlac City as a place of untapped tourism potential.

"We want the people to know what Tarlac is all about. That’s why we introduced this festival to them which will now be a part of the Tarlaqueños’ tradition every year," Mendoza said.

Lydia Co, chairperson of Tarlac Tourism Council and the city’s committee on tourism, said this year’s festival is bigger than last year’s celebration. The tourism council organized a street dancing competition and other events that showcased the roots and heritage of Tarlaqueños life with a larger number of participants.

For the street dancing competition, nine contestants from the city’s elementary schools vied for the prestige to be called the champion when it comes to dance, costume, and artistic interpretative dance depicting the way of life of Aetas.

Meanwhile, three contestants from the high school level competed for the interpretative dance, song, and costume portraying the different cultures and ethno-linguistic groups in Tarlac.

The parade stretched along F. Tañedo Street and culminated at the Plaza Hall, where contingents showcased their dancing prowess to a panel of judges and to the excited crowd.

As the highlight of the event, the street dancing competition drew a huge number of people who wanted to witness the dazzling display of color in costumes, ethnic-inspired dances and music with the use of drums, cymbals, bamboo, and rondalla. They were very amused seeing the ingenuous production design and props, creative choreography and movements, and the enthusiastic energy of the young performers. The adrenaline rush could be vividly felt during the intense competition.

Through interpretative dance, each group depicted the Aetas’ practice of hunting and gathering of food such as hogs, chickens, goats and their old time favorites like camote (sweet potato) and other root crops. The students also presented how Aetas perform their rituals in intermarriages among the families of the tribe, during illness and death, and after their bountiful harvest. Through their dance movements, the children portrayed the Aetas’ belief in good and bad spirits living in mountains, animals, plants, and bamboos, as well as their faith in a supreme anito or god.