The Dinagyang Daze

MANILA, Philippines - Philippine festivals are rocking. You can tell from Facebook and from second-hand stories of people who’ve been. I’ve always wanted to but I never get to go. My experience with Philippine festivals is few and far between.

I’ve heard a lot about Sinulog, and based on the pictures, it looks like wild, riotous fun. I’m from Bacolod but shamefully I’ve never really experienced MassKara. I attended the Panagbenga Flower Festival of Baguio but I am averse to the cold and the city was packed with too many people. I did enjoy the Daranging Festival of Palawan. I was impressed by the parade and street dancing, but the experience was more a cultural event than party central since the laid-back and chill Puerto Princesa usually ends the night early, as early as midnight.

So when two friends invited me, sisters from Iloilo, to party at the Dinagyang Festival, I was raring to go.

The Dinagyang Festival of Iloilo is a socio-cultural-religious festival and celebrates and honors the Sto. Nino. There are parades, a street dancing competition by some of the local schools, a local food festival, and a whole lot more.

The Home-Court Advantage

I had the distinct advantage of going to the Dinagyang with friends who are from Iloilo. It meant prior knowledge of what activities were happening throughout the day, where to go, and what to do.

Soul sister getting down in Dinagyang ready to do.

As it was the birthday weekend of one of the sisters, our main goal was to stuff ourselves silly and to party and the Dinagyang seemed like the best time to do it.

If there’s anything to do in Iloilo, it’s eating. The seafood is so fresh, it barely needs any garnishing. Grill it or cook it in butter and it’s fine. We went to some seaside restaurants like Tatoy’s and the famous Iloilo restaurant Breakthrough, where we had some of the largest, juiciest scallops, giant prawns, and a delicious native fish, managat. We also had a go with their native chicken, which was superb. In the city, we ate at Esca’s where the group heaped praises on the kaldareta, baby back ribs, and crispy pata.

Food in Iloilo is so affordable that we probably ate twice our body weight.

The evenings of Friday and Saturday were spent celebrating our friend’s birthday and there were many options. Like pretty much all Ilonggos, the city was alive and every bar and club was wide open with people spilling out in the streets, ready for a good time. We found ourselves in Flow Superclub, which quickly reached full capacity before midnight and their DJs delivered the dance music. People were on their feet for hours dancing, us included.

The native managat is a specialty. ready to do.

Dancing In The Street

The Dinagyang Festival has won heaps of awards from the Aliwan Festival and the Association of Tourism Officers, received citations from the NCCA, and high praise from international award-giving bodies. It boasts some of the best choreography, costumes, and set designs for its street dancing competitions.

At the Freedom Grandstand, 13 schools that were parading and dancing in the street converged to compete in front of a full-capacity crowd.

These were world-class productions that were truly impressive. You could see the hard work the students put into each of the movements and the joy of performing for the Dinagyang.

Each tribe had close to 100 performers either drumming, dancing, or operating the detailed set pieces. One tribe, Tribu Panay, last year’s winners, wowed the audience with a float that transformed into a 35-foot eagle with flapping wings and a bobbing head. Within the 10-minute dance, the eagle flapped its wings, laid eggs, the eggs hatched and the chicks danced. You just had to have been there. It was marvelous.

I think we barely scratched the surface of the Dinagyang festival. We didn’t even get to check out the local food festival or check out any of the beauty pageants. Checking the Internet, the activities in the city had begun as far back as December in preparation for that big weekend when we attended.

It’s a testimony of how much fun it is to take the weekend off to really check out the other parts of our country and the festivals are a great excuse to forget your diet and not check your work e-mails. Bring as many friends as you can, and you’ll be tagging and commenting on the Facebook photos for weeks.