[Tweet “No fireworks, firecrackers? No problem.”]
DAVAO CITY – Davao welcomed 2016 merrily through the 3rd Torotot Festival, an initiative of wireless services leader Smart Communications (Smart).
Smart, through the festival, has been supporting the local government unit of Davao City in promoting a safe Yuletide celebration by discouraging the use of fireworks and firecrackers.
It has been more than a decade since Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte implemented this ordinance.
Since then, the Smart-led Torotot Festival has become a way for the city to show the entire country that being safe doesn’t mean a boring New Year celebration.
In fact, with only the use of torotot, Dabawenyos were still able to greet 2016 with loud noises and all-night long partying.
This year’s Torotot Festival was held at San Pedro Square, Rizal, adjacent to the Davao City Hall, where people started gathering as early as 3pm, to witness the parade and competition of beautifully designed, torotot-inspired costumes. These costumes were worn by participating individuals and groups from Davao City and neighboring areas.
The most creative, torotot-inspired costumes were awarded special prizes from Smart.
For individual category, it was Rogie Vergara who won the first prize, followed by Junjun Cadne and Melanie Melasco in the second and third place.
In the group category, the Davao Movestruck grabbed the first place, while QA Allstars and Mio Bikers earned the second and third spots.
Another major part of the Torotot Festival allowed Dabawenyos to show off their creativity.
This year, teenager named John Vincent Estapon designed the most creative torotot, with a length of around 2 feet and embellished with ornaments and organic materials. Estapon’s craft stood out from the rest with its battery-powered fan in the opening of his torotot.
The winning torotots will be displayed inside the main office of Smart in Davao.
To make the festival even better, Smart added a cosplay competition in the 3rd Torotot Festival, where cosplayers battled it out not only with their costumes and portrayal, but also with torotots that complemented their depicted characters.
A demi-human game character cosplayed by Richie Louie Ando impressed the audience, and bagged the best cosplayer award.
During the event, the first Torotot Festival Mass Zumba was also launched by Smart, where people of all ages participated, with outstanding Zumba dancers getting a variety of prizes.
But the major highlight of the third Torotot Festival is the Smart Jump In Dance Competition, where five of the finest dance crews of Davao battled for cash prizes — plus bragging rights.
After the heated dance-off, it was the all-female crew of Crowns who beat all other contenders with their high-energy performance.
Every Dabawenyo also got a chance to win a brand new iPhone during the Torotot Festival special Smart raffle. Among the thousands who joined the raffle simply by registering to Smart Prepaid UCT30, it was Norhana Omar who started her 2016 with a brand new iPhone 5c.
UCT30 provides unlimited calls to Smart, SUN and TNT subscribers, unlimited texts to all networks, and 100MB data mobile internet surfing plus. SPINNR is also free when you are registered to UCT30. To enjoy UCT30, simply dial *121#. A regular load balance of 30 is required to access this offer.
Torotot Festival instantly went viral on various social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, with Dabawenyos enjoying the ‘Smart Life’ by instantly sharing with the rest of the world the sights, the sounds and the spirit of the festival through their smartphones and tablets — running on the strength of Smart’s wireless network.
To stay updated with Smart events and promos, simply follow Smart’s official accounts on Facebook and Twitter.
[/pr – photos provided by Smart]
Leave a Reply