There are colorful lights from lampposts around you. Concrete benches, tables, and chairs are occupied with different unfamiliar faces. On the other side, a live local band is playing on the stage with people singing with and cheering for them. You can smell the different kinds of street food like kwek kwek, banana cue, and isaw being cooked at the stalls surrounding the park. These are things you typically see in Tagum Freedom Park especially during nighttime. But even if the sun is up, the park is still filled with people. It’s not only in the night where you can feel the city alive. You can see children playing with and running around the cold water being spewed from the ground, students hanging out with their friends, doing homework or even rehearsing for a dance presentation, and people coming in and out from adjacent Internet cafes on the other side of the road. Every Christmas, the towering 153-feet tall Christmas tree, made of pipes and steel, filled with twinkling colorful bulbs is an attraction. If you’re looking for a place to hangout with your friends, then Tagum Freedom Park should definitely be your choice.
Ross Fievanni A. Inguillo
