SM won the Best Float Award during the recent Panagbenga Festival in Baguio City. The float, which was designed in celebration of the Year of the Tiger, was also SM’s tribute to Baguio’s tiger qualities – splendor, courage, and the ability to rise above any challenges.

The float, which was a collaboration of SM City Baguio and the SM Department Store, bloomed with thousands of flowers. There were flowers Baguio and the mountain region were best known for – the iconic Everlasting Flower, which is considered the Philippines’ second national flower; as well as Chrysanthemums, Golden Mums, Ping Pong Balls, and Bronze Reagans. There were also flowers from Baguio’s backyard gardens – anthuriums, gladiolas, and snapdragons.

The SM float also featured exotic blooms from the tropical regions of the Pacific like Lobster’s Claw, Helliconias, Falling Birds; as well as assorted colors of bromeliads, denrobiums, and corgunas with the purest Wonder Whites from southern Philippines.

Panagbenga, which is known as the Baguio Flower Festival, comes from the kankanaey term for “a season of blooming”. One of the city’s top tourist attractions since its establishment in 1995, it is a homage to the beautiful flowers the city is famous for, as well as a celebration of Baguio’s ability to rise above challenges like the Baguio earthquake of 1990. 

SM City Baguio’s Tiger-inspired float is design with fresh flowers like everlasting, Golden Mums, Pingpong Balls, Bronze Reagans, Anthuriums, Gladiolas, and snapdragons, Lobster’s claw, Helliconias, Falling Birds, Bromeliads in assorted colors, Dendrobiums, and Corgunas and Wonder Whites.