At 40, the Negros Trade Fair Offers a Broader Portrait of the Island

It seems inconceivable now, but the Negros Trade Fair began with just 30 vendors gathering in a Makati carpark. At the time, these merchants had been carrying products made in a province reeling from the collapse of its sugar economy. Falling world prices, shrinking export markets, and the failures of the first Marcos-era sugar monopoly had pushed plantations into debt and displaced tens of thousands of workers. Producers looking beyond sugar began turning to creativity as a source of livelihood. Food, weaving, furniture, and the arts offered another way forward, and the fair gave those efforts a marketplace.

“During one of the early Negros Trade Fairs, the theme was Hope Shines in Negros. This is the mindset that has consistently guided us throughout the 40 years of the trade fair,” says Mary Ann Feria-Colmenares, chairperson of the 40th Negros Trade Fair and managing director of Artisana Island Crafts. “The Negrenses have held on to the promise of a new day, and that God’s mercies are new every morning. We are in bloom as we celebrate our 40th.”

The 40th edition of the fair arrives under the banner name Butlak, a Hiligaynon word associated with the rising sun or a bloom. It’s a metaphor that reaches back to the fair’s beginnings, all the while describing what has happened since. The Association of Negros Producers (ANP), which emerged from the same period, has spent the intervening decades supporting the region’s MSMEs, artisans, and producers.

In 2026, Negros comes into view as something far broader than the familiar imagery of Sugarlandia and ancestral houses. This year, organizers are bringing together 178 brands and extending participation across the Negros Island Region, including businesses and communities in Negros Oriental and Siquijor.

What emerges is a concentrated portrait of the island’s flourishing creative industry. Fashion has become an increasingly visible category, with Camille Villanueva, StyleLoft, Pinas Sadya, Reveri by Ria Bolivar, and Hacienda Mar, among this year’s participants. Their work enters a longer material history shaped by local fabrics, tropical fibers, natural dyes, and weaving traditions, now finding expression through a new generation of labels.

Furniture and home design offer another window into the fair’s evolution. Negros makers have developed a material vocabulary around abaca, bamboo, rattan, and hablon, applying time-honored techniques to contemporary objects and interiors. Hacienda Crafts, Art Energy, ARTISANA, Noah, Madera Handicrafts, and NVC, on the other hand, will appear alongside artists and galleries from the region.

“We really try to bring all that the Negros Island region has to offer to the fair,” Colmenares adds. “We endeavor to embrace the other SMEs from other parts of the Negros Island Region. We even have silk weavers from Aklan, artisans from Kanlaon, homegrown hospitality brands, as well as real estate properties joining this year’s event.”

Food remains one of the fair’s most immediate ways of bringing Negros to Manila. Brands such as Bob’s Cafe, 21, Chicken House, El Ideal, and Virgie’s Homemade Products carry with them flavors that are deeply associated with the island, allowing the fair to function almost like a temporary extension of Negros’s food culture in Makati. Newer concepts will now appear beside these long-established names, as well.

The earliest producers who joined the Negros Trade Fair responded to crisis by making something from what they already had. Today, those same instincts operate on a considerably larger stage, with fashion, hospitality, property, food, art, and design contributing to a more expansive idea of Negros. “We are always looking ahead with hopes that the next generation will continue what was started four decades ago,” Colmenares concludes.

Butlak: The 40th Negros Trade Fair runs from September 22 to 27, 2026, at the SMX Convention Center at SM Aura.