Ang Dabawenyo

Take a look at the new logo for Davao’s festival of festivals. This year’s members of the promotions committee are all young, energetic and forward-looking Dabawenyos, and that fact is evident in this new image of Kadayawan sa Dabaw.

We thought (I was invited to join the promotions committee) that the Kadayawan festival needed a boost in the arm for a more modern approach — but without abandoning the traditional aspects, naturally.

What do you think?

This morning I was at a planning session for the promotions activities of the Kadayawan sa Dabaw festival. Marco Polo’s Art Boncato invited me just this morning to be a part of this committee. It was rather sudden and spur-of-the-moment, but I gladly obliged. I wouldn’t miss the chance of helping organize Davao’s own traditional festival.

I don’t want to jump the gun on the Kadayawan organizers, so I’m not going to divulge anything before the official announcements. But I would like to mention that this year is going to be different. For one thing, the younger generation is starting to take over the reins, and we’re bringing in fresh ideas.

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The Kadayawan’s Floral Float Parade is a traditional pageant of orchids and other flowers, thousands of which are formed into whatever shapes that their creators fancy. Mainstays are representations of the Philippine Eagle and Mt. Apo. The flower of choice is the orchid, of course, but since Davao is blessed with an abundance of floral varieties, many floats make use of as many as they can.

The precursor of Kadayawan sa Dabaw, the erstwhile Apo Duwaling Festival, celebrated Mt. Apo, the Durian and the Waling-Waling orchid. Even during that older festival, Dabawenyos have paraded floral floats as a way of showing pride in Davao’s bounty.

Thanks again to Christian Te, here are photos of this year’s Floral Float Parade, which took place yesterday. This event marks the culmination of the Kadayawan sa Dabaw festival.

No self-respecting Davao publication will ever go far without carrying anything about the King of Tropical Fruits — the Durian. So, here’s my own personal experience of this prized delicacy of the Philippine South.

For more than half my life, I actually never touched the stuff. I guess it was because my mother hadn’t started eating durian until she was pregnant with my younger brother (na pinaglihi naman sa durian!). So during my formative years, Mom must’ve passed on to me her Manileño’s aversion to the fruit. Read more »

In other words, “Dancing in the Streets”. Each Kadayawan Festival sees a spray of bright and dazzling colors as communities, schools, organizations, even groups of friends, present artistic interpretatons of traditional tribal dances. Right on the streets of downtown Davao. Indak-indak literally means stomping one’s feet on the ground.

Here are some photos taken this morning by Christian Te.

Last night I was invited to a press conference that was certainly not run of the mill. When Jojie (who’s actually my colleague of sorts as we both contribute to Sun•Star Davao as columnists) told me about it, she didn’t tell me what it was going to be all about. She just said there’d be food and alcohol, and that was enough for me to want to go!

Jojie was retained by this group of poker tournament organizers to handle their PR, but she probably didn’t know I played poker. I do, since 2005 in fact. And I used to be crazy over Texas Hold’em. I had a Japanese-language translation project that involved card games, and I started playing poker because I had to get into the groove so that I could understand better, ergo do my work better. Read more »

The past years’ Kadayawan sa Dabaw celebrations, it’s been thought, have veered away from the authentic spirit of this most important of Davao’s festivals. People have started talking about how ‘commercialized’ the Kadayawan has become over the years. And this probably explains the knee-jerk reaction by this year’s organizers — their unexpected move to change the festival’s schedule.

The city officials responsible for Kadayawan 2007 have reasoned that, since this festival is all about the harvest season, then it should be celebrated during the actual time of harvest, which is early August. This was monumentally unwise. But it’s a good thing that the festival highlights (the Indak-Indak and the floral float parade) were kept on the same period as usual (middle of August). Read more »

Lumadnong Kagikan, Mabungahong Kinaiyahan, Gasa sa Kahitas-an
(Ethnic Heritage, Bountiful Environment, Gifts from the Almighty)

The Kadayawan sa Dabaw will be formally opened at the brand-new Centennial Park on 8 August 2007, 5:30 PM. From the 8th to the culmination in mid-August, there will be various activities that will celebrate the Kadayawan festival around the city. Below, following the Kadayawan highlights, is a set of schedule of activities (tentative, as of 11 July).

Kadayawan Highlights

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I heard from a reliable source in the travel industry that the organizers of the Kadayawan sa Dabaw are seriously considering moving the festival’s dates! This is going to be a huge mistake, if it happens. Philippine festivals are probably our #1 tourist attraction: that is, it’s our best way of pulling tourist arrivals. What does this mean? Simple: visitors to Davao, especially those who come for Kadayawan, plan their vacations way ahead of August.

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