The 2025 La Trinidad Strawberry Festival, set to take place from March 3 to 29, will be highlighted by a massive cake designed in the shape of a traditional ‘kayabang’ basket, filled with 280 kilos of fresh strawberries. The festival was officially launched on February 20, 2025, at the Nazarene Bible College in La Trinidad, Benguet, where the unique cake was showcased alongside other strawberry products.
Valred Olsim, the municipal tourism officer, revealed that the cake’s design was previewed during the previous year’s festival, which featured two large strawberry cakes—one red and one white, showcasing snow-white strawberries. This year, a single local bakery will prepare the cake to ensure uniformity in color, texture, taste, and quality. The cake will be sliced into 16,000 pieces at the municipal gymnasium on March 23.
Vice Mayor Roderick Awingan emphasized the festival’s role in fostering community collaboration and involvement. He likened the strawberry to La Trinidad, noting that the fruit’s many seeds symbolize the town’s diverse population, while its red color represents the community’s welcoming nature to residents, visitors, and tourists alike.
The ‘kayabang’ basket, traditionally used by the Ibaloi tribe for carrying goods, symbolizes the town’s unity, cooperation, and agricultural richness. Mayor Romeo Salda mentioned that the festival, institutionalized in 2011 but celebrated since 1981, once earned La Trinidad a Guinness World Record for the largest strawberry shortcake in 2004, boosting the town’s popularity and progress.
The festival will feature various events, including an ecumenical service, a civic parade, traditional canao and rituals on March 18, and a float and street dancing parade on March 22. Additionally, a competition to find the heaviest and sweetest strawberry will be held on March 14.