Pinoy Fiesta started out as the most inspiring Filipino event that brought the Filipino Community together in 2010. Every group was involved, a huge parade down Fraser street ending up at a large field with food and entertainment. It was truly amazing. Then slowly the event deteriorated to what it was this year.
Pinoy Fiesta Vancouver 2015 could be the start to the end of this festival. The public parade changed at the last minute from the street to the oval field going around in circles with more people in the parade than onlookers. One booth sponsor commented, “the attendance was down 90% from what it was last year.” One performer stated, “I felt like I was singing to the grass”.
There were complaints that the organizer, Jojo Quimpo, took the opportunity to make this event a political gathering for his upcoming bid to be elected as a Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) in Ottawa.
“Solenn’s outfit was not appropriate. Her performance was unbecoming, an insult to the Filipino culture and it doesn’t reflect the values of a Filipino cultural event… Also, people are mad that the Pinoy Fiesta became a Jojo Quimpo political campaign.”
– Bootz Estella
Jojo Quimpo along with Conservative party members. Photo by Diones Lago.
The talk of the town, however, was the shocking performance by the 2015 Pinoy Fiesta headliner, GMA’S Solenn Heussaff. Heussaff showed up in a nearly naked outfit and ended up doing the Miley Cyrus “Twerk” in front of a partial family audience. Parents complained to MLA’S about what their kids witnessed.
Bootz Estella (a Migrante volunteer and a member of a Catholic choir) stated: “Solenn’s outfit was not appropriate. Her performance was unbecoming, an insult to the Filipino culture and it doesn’t reflect the values of a Filipino cultural event. There were minors watching. Also, people are mad that the Pinoy Fiesta became a Jojo Quimpo political campaign.”
Aida Canonigo stated, “some of my youth messaged me about that pic on FB… so I looked at it & I was shocked…parents friends on fb… they feel disgusted with that pics… all they said was that kind of performance is for the bar …it’s a bar or nightclub show.”
RJ Aquino stated, “It turns out that most of my peers didn’t even consider going to this year’s fiesta as they don’t see any incentive to do so. Those who did go didn’t stay long enough to see Solenn take the stage. And since I didn’t go either, I don’t have much to contribute in terms of first-hand accounts.
However, having seen the pictures from the event and hearing feedback from others that were in attendance that did see Solenn’s performance that there was a lack of leadership in every facet of this event.
The suggestive outfit and dancing was out of place and reflects a tone deaf approach to organizing this event. The main organizers shirked their responsibility to the community by not being aware of how the community would react to such a display in an event that was marketed to be family-friendly and culturally significant (of which neither were accomplished that day).
“It reeks of “if we don’t talk about it, people won’t know about it and those who do will forget about it”. It’s a failure of leadership in all aspects. The promise of a culturally significant, family friendly event was broken.”
– RJ Aquino
After putting on the outfit and getting up on stage, there were no indications that the organizers felt that the performance was inappropriate for the audience and supposed spirit of the fiesta. Mindful leadership would have immediately intervened and minimized the impact of the performance while acknowledging their oversight.
In the aftermath, the organizers have been strangely quiet indicating no remorse or that there were no lessons to learn from this debacle. It reeks of “if we don’t talk about it, people won’t know about it and those who do will forget about it”.
It’s a failure of leadership in all aspects. The promise of a culturally significant, family friendly event was broken. No acknowledgement of any misjudgment has been made let alone any type of apology or meaningful call to action to mend community trust. Due to a lack of timeliness to any meaningful follow up, the integrity of any actions that attempt to rectify this failure of leadership will be and should be in question.”
