Is the melting pot that is Baguio City melting its culture down with it?

Lined with green tarp tents on Sundays, Baguio City has been attracting tourists to its heart with the alluring market of you-name-it's — crochet trinkets, second-hand bookstores, clothing stalls of on-trend fashion, but food stalls seem to be the most abundant.

Take the celebration of the Panagbenga Festival. Yearly, month-long festivities are held to celebrate the season of flowers, and though cultural performances are featured and scattered throughout the celebration, does its presence lack in its point of highlighting the vibrancy of Cordilleran culture; or does its presence so suffice in encapsulating the true essence of Cordilleran tradition? In perspective: does the abundance of shawarma, mango graham shakes, and Ilocos empanada stalls echo the essence of Cordillera, or does the tradition of the community dance do enough of the job?