Mabuhay! The Gerard Aflague Collection, a Pacific-Island themed company that sells contemporary cultural products, is only three months old, and we are now expanding our collection into other Pacific-Island markets. We vended at our second festival yesterday (June 9) at the Filipino-American Community of Colorado. While we began offering a Chamorro-centric line of products, my wife who was born and raised in Guam is of Filipino decent, suggested that we expand our line into the Philippine pacific-island target market. It only makes sense. With the census count marking the US population of Filipinos at over 2 million, it allows us to reach a wider customer base that can only help grow our business both online and at festivals.

While our goal is to embrace the whole of our Pacific-island family including those in Micronesia (Palau and FSM), Melanesia, and Polynesia, we have the intent to do this every so slowly as to be able to be sustainable.

The festival was held in Edgewater, Colorado and received over 500 people. While a smaller festival than the Chamorro festival in San Diego in March, our selection was wider, with a t-shirt line added to our offerings.

The people of the Philippines that attended the event are a fun loving, and peaceful people. They are wonderful people with beautiful smiles. The festival was filled with singing, dancing, and music among other things.

A pacific-island fiesta is always a fun time. I had an opportunity to taste banana lumpia, Halo Halo, a cold-icy treat with sweet beans and ice cream, and many other island delicacies.

My kids and wife, also enjoyed themselves. While they helped putting our vending site together, they also took part in the festivities.

Many customers enjoyed the posters, t-shirts, and decals that we designed for our collection. We were inspired by their suggestions and efforts to tell us what they really enjoyed to see. One guy, named Mike, who is now a good friend of mine, asked that we design a shirt that says “Got Balut?” similar to our decal. He also wanted to see us design a t-shirt with the Philippine flag and two cocks fighting. We will be offering these two t-shirts as a result of his suggestions. We take our customer suggestions seriously and want to be sensitive and responsive to their needs and wants.

So much went into planning for this event. We are encouraged that so many people enjoyed our collection. It is our intention to be apart of the Philippine community across the state and into the mid-west. Thank you to all who attended and we again look forward to many more event opportunities. Maraming Salamat!