Pintaflores! Pintaflores! Vamos! San Carlos... The only music you'll hear when you're in San Carlos City during the day of the event highlights.

Pintaflores was born out of the people's search for their own cultural identity and tradition. It has been the City's dream to also have its own unique festival just like MassKara to Bacolod, Sinulog to Cebu, Ati-atihan to Aklan.

Pintaflores Festival is actually a combination of two activities --- Pintados which is a tattoo festival known as Nabingkalan, and "flores" which is a Spanish word for flowers for the theme of the Dances of Flowers. Now, participants celebrates Pintaflores with tattoos of flowers all over their body, performs street dances and rituals just like the tradition to express gratitude to man and environment.

The Pintaflores street dancing and ritual competition highlights the annual festival every November 3-5. Considered as one of the popular street dancing in the region, it features rhythmic dance and dance dramas of life and death, the triumph of good against evil, and shows the townspeople thanksgiving of their abundant blessings and success.

The street dancing is culminated by a dance ritual performed at the City Auditorium. The human flower formation shows the ingenuity and skills of the choreographers and dancers, another impressive part of the dance ritual.

How to Get There:

From Manila, you can fly to Bacolod (Php2500++, round trip, 45 minutes). From Bacolod-Silay Airport, you can take a cab (Php400++) and asked to be dropped off to the South Bus Terminal (if you will be taking a bus).

Ride the bus going to San Carlos via Don Salvador Benedicto, non-aircon buses (Php130, one way, 2.5 hours) starts at 2:30am while aircon buses (Php140, one way, 2.5 hours) starts at 4:30am.

San Carlos City is also the province's takeoff point to Cebu with fastcrafts (and ROROs) reaching Toledo City in an hour. San Carlos is just around 2-hours away by private car from Bacolod City.

Note: The North Bus Terminal also has trip going to San Carlos but it will take you a little longer (over 3-hours) than the one in the South Terminal.

----------------------------------
photos/source/reference: sancarloscity.org | sancarloscity.gov.ph | negros-occ.gov.ph