Vallejo Pista Sa Nayon Festival returns to Mare Island June 7

VALLEJO — The 39^th Vallejo Pista Sa Nayon Festival, celebrating the rich cultural heritage and diversity of the Philippines, will return to Mare Island Saturday with about 15,000 attendees  expected for the free, family-friendly festival.

Pista Sa Nayon, hosted by the Philippine Cultural Committee, will take place from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Mare Island Coal Sheds on 850 Nimitz Ave.

Attendees will enjoy a parade at 10 a.m., two stages with entertainment, 25 food vendors, and four pavilions located in the coal sheds: a cultural pavilion, a Filipino martial arts tournament, and two dedicated to the palengke (market) with 35 vendors offering crafts, books and other products.

All these offerings will emphasize this year’s festival theme, which is “Sharing the Map of Our Motherland,” according to Jen Mojica, chair and event producer of Pista Sa Nayon.

Mojica had volunteered for the festival as an MC in 2018 and 2019 but took a bigger role in 2022 after attending a meeting at the Filipino Community of Solano County and realizing that the festival organizers were running out of steam.

“I felt like Vallejo Pista Sa Nayon was in danger, and it's not something we ever want to face in our community,” Mojica said. “So at that time, I availed myself to be in a supportive role and that's when the handing of the torch really started to happen.”

The festival has always aimed to celebrate the Philippines’ independence from Spanish rule on June 12, 1898, but Mojica came up with the idea of organizing it around an annual theme to focus on a piece of the islands’ rich culture. In 2024, the theme was “Weaving Generations” and it featured weavers brought from the Philippines who demonstrated backstrap loom weaving.

This year’s theme came to Mojica when an older gentleman approached her during last year’s festival and asked her where he could find a certain vendor. The vendor, he said, was from the same city he came from.

“Something about that stuck,” Mojica said. “When I started digging to learn more about the Philippines, I was like, ‘Gosh, it's so diverse.’ Three major islands, over 80 provinces and over 7,000 small islands. I thought the map would be a great theme to highlight this diversity.”

Attendees will find a 20-foot-wide interactive map in the cultural pavilion where they will be able to mark where their family came from. Educators nearby will help them pinpoint the location if they are not sure.

“Our hope is that kids and grandkids start conversations with parents and grandparents to ask, ‘Where is our family from? Tell us more,’” Mojica said, “because the truth is that everyone's getting older, and you don't want to lose that history.”

The parade will also highlight the Philippines’ diversity, with participants carrying a sign proclaiming their city of origin and exhibiting crafts, clothing or customs typical from their region. The food and cultural vendors will also display signs stating where their roots are from. Mojica envisions this initiative creating a buzz in the community when attendees realize their family is from the same place.

When it comes to vendors, she is very selective. “We interview and talk to every food vendor and every palengke vendor. ‘What do you offer, does it fit well in the palengke? And is your hospitality on point?’ Because our culture is very hospitable, and that experience for festival-goers is really important to me as well,” Mojica said.

She’s also looking for ways to improve the attendees’ experience, for example, by cutting waiting time for food, such as telling a vendor that if frying chicken is going to take 16 minutes, they should look for an alternative.

This year she has also added mobile vendors. “In the Philippines part of the street experience is to hear bells ringing because someone is selling something,” she said. The mobile vendors will sell cultural products or food that has been pre-packaged and pre-approved, adding movement, authenticity and interest to the festival.

The parade was a big part of Pista Sa Nayon in years past, when it traveled from downtown Vallejo to the Barbara Kondylis waterfront park, where the festival was held. But it was discontinued when Pista Sa Nayon moved to Mare Island in 2022. 

Community elders had been asking to resume the parade and Mojica obliged this year with a parade of over 200 people who will start at 10 am at the Mare Island ferry terminal and walk to the coal sheds.

Entertainment will kick off at 11 a.m. at the main stage. This year headliners include rapper Ruby Ibarra, who recently won NPR’s Tiny Desk contest and Ogie Alcasid, renowned as the King of OPM (Original Pilipino Music) and one of the original singers of the traditional song Nandito Ako.

Filipino dance groups will showcase dances related to their region. “We hope to take the audience on a tour of the three main islands, Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao,” Mojica explained. A choir of 25 people will sing Filipino music and between acts there will be karaoke and other fun activities.

The second stage is also a new addition. Located by the Mare Island ferry terminal, and called The Next Generation stage, it will feature high schoolers performing Filipino dances, youth bands, a DJ battle and break dancing.

Pista Sa Nayon is also offering several great raffle prizes such as round trip tickets to the Philippines.

Pulling together the festival, which includes over 200 vendors, is a heavy lift. Mojica, who is a project manager consultant by profession, is well suited for the task. She runs the festival like a company, developing a team of 12 leaders who take on different parts of the festival aligned with their interests, and form their own teams. She’s also in charge of sponsorships, marketing, and driving the vision and the execution.

Although an event of such magnitude ideally would need a whole year's preparation, the bulk of the work happens in the last four months, first through virtual meetings and, once they are closer to the date, with in person weekly meetings. Around 70 people volunteer to make Pista Sa Nayon a success.

Including all generations is crucial for Mojica. She asks the elders to attend meetings and often has one of them speak. “There's a different feeling when the elders are proud of our team than when it comes from me because it's like getting validation from your mom and dad or your auntie and uncle,” she said. They also have high schoolers involved, so the festival will live on.

Putting on Pista Sa Nayon costs more than $80,000. Although the vendors bring in a little money, the festival relies almost exclusively on grants and sponsorships. The biggest grant by far is given by the city of Vallejo.

Mojica emphasized that people should take the free ferry from Vallejo to Mare Island because parking will be limited and attendees who drive can expect gridlock. The ferry has extended its schedule to accommodate the crowds.

“It’s a lot of fun,” Mojica said. “Attendees can enjoy Pista Sa Nayon through hospitality, through food, through shopping, through entertainment and through history and cultural exhibits.”