In Baguio, ‘horror fest’ dropped amid backlash
BAGUIO CITY—Organizers of an annual Halloween parade, held in the city since 2011, have given up plans of staging a “horror festival and convention” in October and would instead proceed with a “fantasy parade” following a religious pushback that now includes Bishop Rafael Cruz of the Diocese of Baguio.
The event has been organized by college friends “out of love for the community,” said Carl Paolo Corpuz, who represented the group alongside his sister, lawyer Anna May Corpuz, before Monday’s inquiry by the city council. The inquiry was opened because of an online petition which questioned the city’s support for such public activity.
Corpuz said his friends, who are now engaged in different professions, reunite each year to lead Halloween projects that began 15 years ago as a good-natured “zombie walk” performed by cosplayers. In 2019, a local university staged its own zombie parade called “Karkarna.” The group also said one of the early Halloween projects was sponsored by a shopping mall operated by the Baguio diocese.
These events were assembled as “fun events” that allowed people an avenue for “creative expression,” Corpuz said. This year’s festival has sponsors, but many public activities like the zombie parade involve cosplayers who spend money for their own costumes, he said.
While the petition itself has raised the specter of child violence and the recent school shootings, that was barely discussed at the inquiry which revolved around the Halloween group’s marketing pitch to make Baguio, the country’s summer capital, also the country’s “horror capital.”
Groups opposed to the Halloween project, most of them retired and elderly residents, wore white as they packed the council’s session hall. Younger residents who support Corpuz wore black.
Cruz told the council that the term “Halloween” is a term associated by Christians with the word “holy” that should mean “honor” and not disrespect the dead.
Mayor Benjamin Magalong joined the inquiry to acknowledge that previous Halloween events were backed by his office, and said these activities in no way advocated “satanism.” But he also chastised Corpuz for the horror capital debacle.
The horror capital phrase was a marketing strategy and was not a description when the group secured a city permit for the parade and other Halloween activities on Oct. 24-Oct. 25, Corpuz said.
Almost every councilor who spoke out against the Halloween project insisted they did not intend to stifle creativity in a city built by diverse cultures. But they also insisted that these creative ideas should follow the prescriptions of Ordinance No. 29, passed in 2023, which encourages all city activities to promote “positive values.”
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