18th Annual Filipino Cultural Celebration in Oceanside

The Filipino-American Cultural Organization (FACO) and the Oceanside Public Library will be hosting the 18th Annual Filipino Cultural Celebration on Saturday, June 8, 2019. The event will take place in the Oceanside Civic Center Plaza, located downtown at 330 N. Coast Highway in Oceanside’s Cultural District, from 12:00 noon to 6:30 p.m. Event admission is free and open to the public.

The theme for this year’s event is “The Filipino Imagination in the Western World: The Myths, the Legends and the Native History,” and will offer attendees a day full of Philippine folk dancing and music, colorful costumes, special performances from local Filipino-American talents, and delicious Filipino cuisine. Event highlights will include the coronation of the 2019 Little Mr. POGI, Little Miss Fil-Am and Miss Pre-teen Fil-Am; and presentation of the Mrs. Fil-Am candidates and winners. Guests will be delighted by the FACO Cultural Dance Group which will perform dances from Luzon, Mindanao, and the Visayan Islands. Scholarships will be awarded to deserving Filipino-American high school seniors in North San Diego County and in the Philippines.

The event offers crafts and activities for children in the courtyard of the Civic Center Library Community Rooms until 5:00 p.m. Inside the Library, some fun Philippine collectibles will be on display, and short videos about Filipino cooking and tourism will be showing continuously. There will be a variety of vendors offering their products and services in the Plaza area.

Now in existence for over 40 years, FACO is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, whose platform includes: youth education; disaster relief; preservation and promotion of cultural heritage; providing scholarships to Filipinos in the USA and the Philippines; participation in 2013 and 2016 building projects to serve education and community needs in the Philippines; donations to the House of the Philippines project in Balboa Park and the Oceanside Public Library; provision of free Tagalog classes and cultural dance lessons to its members; and formation of its own choir group.

For more information about the event, please visit www.filamcultural.com or call Dori Harris at (760) 822-0683 or Genevieve Wunder at (760) 717-7151. For Library information, visit www.oceansidepubliclibrary.org or call (760) 435-5600.