Filipino residents in the Coachella Valley coming together to create community festival amid travel trouble
Gavin Nguyen
PALM SPRINGS, Calif. (KESQ) – The return of the Coachella Valley Filipino Festival, or CVFF, is coming at the right time for many Filipino-American residents in the Coachella Valley.
Organizers with the festival said residents are having a tougher time traveling to the Philippines amid inflation and other troubles. They said events like these help bridge the gap and create a community environment where they can celebrate their culture thousands of miles from their homeland.
The festival announced it will return on November 15th at Downtown Park in Palm Springs. The event will run from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and offers free admission. It was last held in 2023.
For Filipino-Americans in the Coachella Valley, the return of the festival is important.
Bert Ticman is a regular at Fil-Am Oriental Market, one of few Filipino stores around the Coachella Valley. After eating lunch, he described the importance of cultural celebrations like these.
“I’ve been here almost 40 years or something, but it’s been a long time. So every now and then, you know, we want to go home and see… see our country,” he explained.
“You miss a lot of things. You miss a lot of food, you miss talking about when you were young and you went to college, riding the jeepneys and things like that.”
For some, visiting friends and family in the Philippines is a simple plane ticket away. But for others, finding the money to do so is a more difficult task.
Michael Milan, who is part of the event organizing team for the CV Filipino Festival, said some Filipinos in the valley find tariffs and travel expenses to be a barrier, keeping them from returning back home.
“Our older generation who were were immigrants here are not able to to travel into the Philippines as easily just due to those costs,” he explained. “We want to make sure that they have access to the to have that experience here in in so far as what we can bring to them through this festival.”
The celebration will feature over 50 vendors selling tastes from the Philippines, like lumpia, adobo, lechon, and much more. Bayanihan Desert will also be tabling at the event to provide more information and gather community feedback about a mural project in Palm Springs over five years in the making.
Christine Soto, a member of Bayanihan Desert, said the mural will celebrate the diversity of the Coachella Valley.
“Well, representation matters. I know that that phrase gets thrown out a lot, but, you know, I think people want to see themselves reflected in the community that they live in. And art is a wonderful way to do that.”
The demand for Filipino representation is also growing in the region. As other Asian restaurants and markets begin making their way into the desert, the Filipino community continues to ask for favorites only found outside of valley, like Seafood City, a popular Filipino supermarket chain, and Jollibee, a Filipino fast food staple.
Milan remembered during the last festival in 2023, vendors that took weeks of convincing to venture into the desert ended up selling out within hours.
“That’s our long term hope, is that is that the the vendors who are presenting at the festival will understand that there’s a demand here.”
To learn more about the Coachella Valley Filipino Festival, you can visit their website by clicking here. Organizers also encourage you to find them on social media, like their Instagram (@cvfilipinofest).