The municipality of La Trinidad in Benguet province launched on Thursday the 2025 Strawberry Festival that will feature a giant strawberry cake shaped into a “kayabang” (native basket) using 280 kilos of fresh berries.

Valred Olsim, municipal tourism officer, said in a media interview on the sidelines of the event held at the Nazarene Bible College here that this year’s design was given a sneak-peak during last year’s festival. The town then featured two giant strawberry cakes –one red and the other, white featuring the snow-white strawberries.

Olsim said 500 pans of strawberry sponge cake will be cut into 16,000 slices at the municipal gymnasium on March 23.

“We have a local baker owning a bakeshop using their own recipe that will prepare the cake,” he said.

Olsim said they opted to pick just one bakeshop to ensure that the whole cake will have the same color, texture, taste and quality all throughout.

Vice Mayor Roderick Awingan, in his message, said: “We encourage the cooperation, partnership and collaboration of our community and that is the essence. We want our community to be involved and that is the essence why we are celebrating the strawberry festival.”

“The strawberry is like the municipality of La Trinidad, it has so many seeds and the seeds symbolizes the people, red symbolizes the love of the people accepting whoever want to stay –they may be residents, visitors or tourist and they are welcome,” he added.

Kayabang is a native basket used by the Ibaloi tribe in the old days to carry food and other items to and from the field. It represents the town’s unity and cooperation as a people as well as its agricultural bounty.

Mayor Romeo Salda said the Strawberry Festival was institutionalized through a municipal ordinance passed in 2011 but had been celebrated by the townsfolk since 1981.

He recalled that La Trinidad obtained a Guinness World Record for the biggest strawberry short cake in 2004 as a result of the community’s collective effort, which has helped make the festival and the town more popular and progressive.

The almost month-long celebration will run from March 3 to 29, to be highlighted by an ecumenical service, civic parade and the traditional canao and ritual on the 18th, and the float and street dancing parade on the 22nd.

There will also be a search for the heaviest and sweetest strawberry on March 14. (PNA)