Baguio Fantasy Festival – Fact or Fiction?

Baguio Fantasy Festival: The public dialogue certainly challenged us to reflect, but it also gave us an opportunity to look at the bigger picture. After more than a decade of building a creative community through horror-themed events and the Zombie Walk, we realized that our vision for Baguio’s creative scene had grown beyond one genre. Fantasy gives us a wider canvas. It opens the door to folklore, mythology, literature, superheroes, cosplay, music, visual arts, and all kinds of imaginative storytelling.

We didn’t want the conversation about our creative community to end with what people were afraid of. We wanted to explore what else we could create together.

Sometimes, evolution means opening a new chapter, not insisting that every story must stay in the same genre.

BFF: What was worth saving was the community. The volunteers, cosplayers, photographers, artists, performers, families, and ordinary people who were willing to dress up, show up, and become part of something unusual. We also wanted to preserve the spirit of creative freedom and community participation that made the Zombie Walk special in the first place.

What needed to change was the framework of the public festival. We wanted a broader, more inclusive identity that could welcome more creative disciplines and make the event accessible to a wider audience.

We aren’t erasing the past. We’re building on it.

The zombies helped us get here. Now we’re inviting dragons, fairies, superheroes, mythical creatures, and probably a few characters whose origin stories need explaining.

BFF: It’s a genuine evolution, not simply a name change.

The Baguio Fantasy Festival has its own branding, communications, and public identity. The Fantasy Parade is now framed around imagination, folklore, storytelling, and creative expression, with a family-friendly atmosphere and costume guidelines appropriate for the public event.

This year, people can expect more than a parade of costumed participants. We’re bringing together creative communities, performers, musicians, models, makers, and other local talents.

The parade will lead into a program featuring live performances at People’s Park, including the Fantasyverse Music Festival.

Think of it this way: the old event asked people to step into a world of horror. Fantasy invites them to imagine what other worlds they can bring to life.

And the best part? You don’t need to be a professional cosplayer to belong. Sometimes all you need is a costume, a little imagination, and the confidence to walk down Session Road like the main character.

BFF: The discussions were an important part of the process, and we took them seriously. Public events exist within a community, so listening to concerns is part of being responsible organizers. At the same time, the festival’s evolution is about more than responding to criticism. We saw an opportunity to broaden our creative direction and make space for more people, stories, and art forms.

We can respect people’s concerns without abandoning the value of creative expression.

Our goal is not to win an argument with the public. It’s to build an event that people can understand, participate in, and enjoy together.

BFF:  I think it was right to remind us that organizers need to be clear about the nature of a public event, especially when families and children are involved. Clear guidelines, communication, and responsible programming matter. Where I think there was a misunderstanding was in assuming that a horror-themed creative event necessarily promotes the things it depicts.

Art can explore fear without glorifying harm. A monster costume is not a manifesto, and a zombie is not automatically a threat to public morality.

That said, we also recognize that people approach art from different backgrounds and beliefs. We don’t need everyone to enjoy every genre to coexist respectfully.

A community can have different tastes without treating those differences as a reason to stop creating.

BFF:  It’s an evolution, informed by reflection.

A compromise suggests that somebody must lose something for everybody else to be satisfied. That’s not how we want to approach the future of the creative community.

We’re creating a public festival with a different identity, clearer guidelines, and a wider creative scope. The purpose is to invite more people into the conversation, not to declare one genre better than another.

And for the record, we don’t believe horror needs to disappear for fantasy to flourish. Horror, fantasy, science fiction, comedy, and drama all have their place in the arts.

We can choose the right format for the right audience without declaring any genre the enemy.

BFF: Fantasy is the space between what exists and what we can imagine.

It can be a superhero flying into battle, a fairy stepping out of a storybook, a mythical creature from Philippine folklore, a character from literature, or an entirely original creation.

On October 25, Session Road will become a stage for that imagination. Expect colorful costumes, creative characters, performers, models, and participants bringing their own interpretations of fantasy to the streets.

We’re also excited to have communities such as Otageki, Baguio Cosplay Network, Katsuro Cosplayers, and Haraya Model Co. participating, alongside the Baguio Central School Drum and Lyre Band and other creative partners.

And here’s the thing about fantasy: you don’t have to agree on what is real to appreciate what someone has imagined.

For one afternoon, Session Road gets to be more than a road. It gets to be a runway, a storybook, and a little bit of magic.

BFF: We’d assess the costume based on the public event’s guidelines, not simply on the character’s name or franchise.

The Fantasy Parade follows a family-friendly standard, using the general-audience and parental-guidance principles of the MTRCB’s G and PG classifications as a reference. Costumes that are excessively frightening, graphic, violent, or otherwise inappropriate for the event would not be suitable.

A character can be reimagined in a creative, playful way, but the costume still has to fit the event.

In short, this is not the place to audition for the next slasher movie. If you’re bringing a monster, give us the charming version. If you’re bringing a villain, perhaps leave the graphic special effects at home.

The goal is to let people express themselves while making the public celebration welcoming for families.

BFF:  We absolutely want Filipino storytelling and local creativity to have a bigger place in the festival.

Baguio has a rich creative community, and the Cordilleras have a wealth of stories, art, and traditions that deserve to be understood and appreciated beyond a single event.

We also recognize that cultural traditions are not just costumes or decorative themes. They carry meaning and belong to living communities. We should approach them with respect, proper context, and collaboration with the people who know and preserve them.

Our vision includes encouraging reading, creative writing, storytelling, and stronger connections with schools, libraries, artists, and cultural communities.

This year’s parade already brings together different creative groups and performers, and we see that as a foundation to build on.

We want a future where a child can discover a mythical creature at the parade, ask where the story came from, visit a library, and come home wanting to read more.

That’s a kind of magic we’d love to create.

BFF: All of them, provided they respect the event’s guidelines.

The Fantasy Festival is designed to be a public, family-friendly celebration of imagination and creative expression. You can be a child in a homemade costume, a serious cosplayer, a local artist, a tourist looking for something uniquely Baguio, or someone who simply wants to watch.

You don’t need expensive armor, professional makeup, or a costume that took six months to build.

You can arrive as a dragon, a superhero, a fairy, or an original character you invented over breakfast.

And to our longtime Zombie Walk participants: you still belong in this community. The format is changing, but the people and the creative spirit that helped build it are part of our story.

BFF: Parents can expect a public celebration designed to be welcoming to children and families, with costume guidelines, a focus on non-violent and non-graphic presentations, and a variety of creative performances.

We encourage costumes inspired by fantasy, superheroes, literature, and imaginative characters. We ask participants to avoid excessively scary or graphic looks and to keep their presentations appropriate for a family audience.

We also encourage parents and guardians to accompany younger children and help them participate responsibly.

Our intention is to create a space where children can enjoy seeing extraordinary characters come to life, where teenagers can express their creativity, and where adults can rediscover the fun of imagination.

Because growing up shouldn’t mean giving up the ability to play pretend. It should just mean you get better at making the costume.

BFF: First, thank you. The people who joined the Zombie Walks, volunteered, created costumes, took photographs, and brought their friends helped make this community what it is today.

We understand that change can feel personal when you’ve spent years building memories around an event.

But those memories are not being taken away. They’re part of the foundation we’re standing on.

We are not asking anyone to stop loving horror. We’re asking everyone to see that the creative community can grow to include more than one kind of story.

There will always be room to appreciate the things that brought us together, even as we explore new directions.

And if you spent years perfecting your zombie makeup, don’t worry. That creativity doesn’t suddenly expire. It just means you have another genre to experiment with.

BFF: Baguio has always been a place where different influences, communities, and creative traditions meet. It’s a university town, an artists’ community, a cultural destination, and a place with its own strong relationship with storytelling and imagination.

Our climate, landscapes, architecture, local history, and creative communities give us a distinctive setting for a fantasy festival.

But what really makes the festival belong in Baguio is its people.

It’s the students who create costumes, the artists who imagine new worlds, the musicians who bring performances to life, the small businesses that support the event, and the volunteers who show up because they believe the city deserves spaces for creativity.

We don’t need to copy another city’s festival to create something meaningful.

We can create something that feels unmistakably Baguio: imaginative, community-driven, and rooted in the creativity of the people who call this city home.

BFF:  The Baguio Fantasy Parade takes place on October 25, 2026, bringing a celebration of fantasy and imagination to the streets of Baguio.

Here’s the schedule:

Date: October 25, 2026

Assembly: 2:00 PM at Post Office Park

Parade proper: 3:00 PM

Route: From Post Office Park along Session Road to People’s Park (Malcolm Square)

After-parade program: 5:00 PM to 9:00 PM at People’s Park

The celebration continues with performances, music, and community entertainment, including the Fantasyverse Music Festival. Featured participants include the Baguio Central School Drum and Lyre Band, with musicians, performers, and creative groups joining the festivities.

For registration, costume requirements, any applicable fees, and the latest participation instructions, we encourage everyone to consult the official Baguio Fantasy Festival and Baguio Fantasy Parade social media pages and announcements. Participants should follow the published registration instructions rather than assume that every activity has the same requirements.

Our advice? Prepare your costume early, arrive for assembly on time, keep your costume family-friendly, and bring your imagination.

Session Road is about to get a little more fantastical.

BFF: We want it to be the beginning of a bigger conversation about creativity in Baguio.Imagine a festival that inspires children to read folklore, encourages young people to write their own stories, gives local artists more opportunities to showcase their work, connects schools with creative communities, and brings visitors to the city through art and imagination.

Imagine a celebration where people can disagree about what they enjoy but still appreciate the effort and creativity behind somebody else’s work.

That is the kind of legacy we want to build.

The Zombie Walk showed us that a small community event can grow into something meaningful. Fantasy Festival is our opportunity to take that same community spirit and open the doors to even more possibilities.

And perhaps the most important thing we can prove is this: a city doesn’t have to choose between tradition and imagination, or between one genre and another.

There’s room for more stories.

After all, if we’ve learned anything from a decade of organizing these events, it’s that the most interesting things happen when people dare to imagine something that wasn’t there before.

This October 25, we’re inviting Baguio to imagine with us.