![Wagga Philippine Community president Annabelle Borja invites all residents to experience her home country's culture through food, song and dance at Kyeamba Smith Hall on Saturday. Picture by Madeline Begley Wagga Philippine Community president Annabelle Borja invites all residents to experience her home country's culture through food, song and dance at Kyeamba Smith Hall on Saturday. Picture by Madeline Begley](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/JEQDf2CFmqVGDcvEsZPwEY/63a1a091-ea00-4f33-9cc6-06614c8baefb.JPG/r0_0_5032_3355_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
For the first time ever the Wagga Philippine Community is inviting other cultures to celebrate the 125th Philippine Independence Day.
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From food and entertainment to a singing competition and open mic karaoke, to a Filipino Jeep, residents will get a first-hand experience of the Philippines, but in Wagga's own backyard.
A mini "Fusion-like" festival will be held at Kyeamba Smith Hall at the Wagga Showgrounds, with more than 10 Filipino food stalls line up and an array of performers.
Wagga Philippine Community president Annabelle Borja said it is their biggest celebration to date.
"It's an experience of the Philippines in Wagga in a day," she said.
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" It's the first time we're opening it up to other cultures. For the longest time, Philippine Independence has always been celebrated by just merely the Filipinos ourselves but we haven't opened it up to everyone because it's such a big celebration and following the pandemic, we thought we would try and do something big."
Mrs Borja said that she hopes residents will embrace the culture and its history.
"We want to show the community who we are and introduce ourselves as Filipinos. We want to show our food, our history and our entertainment, that's our objective," she said.
With performers from Griffith, Shepparton and Albury, Mrs Borja said there is plenty of entertainment residents won't want to miss.
"The Philippines is made of three major areas and there are 3700 islands in the Philippines," she said.
"Even with dialects, we don't even understand each other, so the performances are a showcase of the different regions.
"It's a feature of regional dancers."
The event will kick off on Saturday at 9.30am with a mass.
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