By Emmanuel T. Erediano
Variety News Staff

THE Borja family won the float competition in this year’s Flame Tree Arts Festival while Sebastian Tajibmai’s Yap booth was awarded first prize.
Hundres of people from all over the islands and other Pacific jurisdictions visited the Flame Tree Arts Festival at its new site at the Civic Center in Susupe, according to Council for Arts and Culture Director Cecile Taitano Celes.
She said there were times when vendors ran out of supplies due to the great number of people who came here “out of their love for arts and culture.”
The festival started on April 26 and ended yesterday.
Last year there were 87 food and crafts booths set up at the festival which this year drew 43 local artists, 17 food vendors and 28 members of the Sabalu Farmers Market Association.
“I lost weight and I lost my voice, but it was worth it,” Celes said, adding that the festival this year was another “success.”
Performers highlighting Chamorro and Carolinian culture capped this year’s festival last night.
The float competition and the parade of cultures were held on Saturday.
The Borja family won $500 for winning the float competition.
Saying it was their second time to participate in the contest, Ignacio Borja and his family portrayed aspects of the Chamorro cultural heritage on their float.
Their float had a traditional house, family members in local attire, local fruit, vegetables and utensils as well as 200-year-old artifacts.
Ignacio Borja who works at the Emergency Management Office, said they want to continue promoting the local cultural tradition that his great grandparents instilled in them when they were young.
He added that it was his mother’s idea to participate in this year’s festival.
They also received $300 for winning second place in the best booth contest.
“It is not the prize, but the pride, recognition and cultural promotion that matters to us,” Borja said.
He said it took them almost a week to prepare the float.
The other group that joined the float competition were the students, parents and teachers of Tanapag Elementary School. They won the $300 second prize.
Esther S. Seman, PTA president said they presented a “world of the rainbow,” identifying all the ethnicities on island, and how people get along despite differences in culture.
“No matter how different the culture, we treat each other with respect and equally, and that’s what really unites us,” Seman said, adding that it took them two days to finish the float.
A booth set up by Sebastian Tajibmai, also of EMO, exhibited the arts and crafts of Yap and included lava-lavas, grass skirts and other handicrafts. He won the $500 first prize.
Flower Salas’s arts and crafts booth won third prize.
Those who also participated in the parade of cultures were the Manamko’ Luta, the Palau delegation, the Guam delegation, the Tinian delegation, the Rota delegation, the Inatuas Group, the Rematau Dancers, the Korean Association, Tanapag Elementary School, the Weilippal dancers and Philippine community groups.