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The Cutud Lenten Rites Festival has been cancelled for 2020, in another blow to tourism everywhere.

Well, it only seems like yesterday that we lost the Pyongyang Marathon, and now the Cutud Lenten Rites festival has been withdrawn from the YPT yearly calendar.

If you have never heard of the Cutud Lenten Rites Festival, it is an event held yearly in San Pedro, San Fernando, Pampanga Province in the Philippines, whereby devotees, or nutters (depending on your take on the whole god thing) literally get themselves nailed to the cross on Good Friday.

Of course, there’s a little bit more to it than that, with people walking for miles with big wooden crosses on their backs, slapping themselves with whips (and sending blood flying everywhere), all in a very family-friendly Sunday fete type atmosphere.

The event is not a small deal, with literally thousands of locals and foreigners defending on the small town, and hundreds of media even attending the event (photos and news feeds are a yearly thing).

Had the event taken place this year, it would have been YPT’s 5th time taking groups to the Cutud Lenten Rites Festival, as well as our yearly “Extreme Philippines” jaunt.

Alas though the government of the Philippines, whilst placing 57 million people under quarantine, has decided a mass event with blood splattering everywhere is not the best of ideas during a global pandemic! Sentiments we accept sadly, but obviously, completely understand.

What will get cancelled next? We’ve already had the Olympics, the CONIFA World Cup, and worst of all Eurovision stolen from us! Sadly, and realistically no matter how excited you are about it, the Mass Games are highly unlikely to be taking place in 2020.

So, chin up Pioneers, we know how much quarantine sucks, but keep planning those 2021 travels, and remember things could be worse.

We run tours to the Philippines annually. Take advantage of our €50 deposit offer to secure your spot one of our tours for 2021.

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