TTKD street party gives millennials a nostalgic trip from Pinatubo
ANGELES CITY — The 25th Tigtigan Terakan Keng Dalan (TTKD or Singing and Dancing in the Street) will get a new feature aside from the yearly musical bands and parties on October 27-28.
This will be an opportunity to give the millennials an insight of what happened during the Mt. Pinatubo eruption in 1991. Called the “Pamangasnang lahar,” the young partygoers will smear each other’s face or arms with volcanic materials, i.e the sand and ash that Mt. Pinatubo spewed out.
“We want to bridge the gap between millennials and older TTKD-goers,” Joy Cruz, the city’s deputy tourism officer said, “we want them to experience a bit of this disaster that befell our city and how we overcame it through courage and hard work.”
The TTKD was organized by Mayor Edgardo Pamintuan on the last Saturday of October 1992, during his first term, to promote Angeles City has risen from the Mt. Pinatubo disaster. It was dubbed as the local version of Germany’s annual Oktoberfest celebration. Instead commemorating a royal wedding, Angeles city’s version is to celebrate the resiliency of its citizens to overcome the stupor after the eruption and make the city whole again.
The first TTKD was held on a stretch of MacArthur Highway in Barangay Balibago, invited the local bands to play, and sell food and drinks by the business establishments. The venue has now been expanded to a kilometer of road. For the first time, there will be a culinary fests and artists’ villages along with the usual festivities.