Winners of Kadayawan Festival 2008 Announced

After our Pasigarbo sa Sugbo Festival Coverage two weeks ago, I found myself in Davao covering one of the Philippines grandest festival - The Kadayawan sa Davao Festival.

This time aside from Nina and Eric, some of our co-founders of the SEAIR Adventure Club like Gail, Marc and Karla also joined us to witness the Mindanao’s “Festival of Festivals”.

This is not my first time to visit Davao, I was previously assigned in Davao with my past employer and have also covered several tourism related events in this city but Davao’s food, tourist spots and people makes me want to visit this city whenever i have a chance.

 
We left Manila at around 8am via the new NAIA terminal 3 and finally arrived in Davao at around 9:30am. Upon arrival in Davao City, we headed to Ponce Suites to unpack our things and to freshen up before heading to Rizal Park for the Kadayawan Festival Street Dancing Showdown.
 
We had already missed the Indak Indak sa Kadalanan (Street Performance) and were waiting for the street dancing showdown of Davao-based groups which was to take place at 2PM, so we decided to have lunch at Davao’s famous Luz Kinilaw. We ordered grilled Bihod (roe), kinilaw na tuna, grilled Chicken, grilled tuna belly, 3 litro’s of cola, rice, rice and more rice.
 

After our heavy lunch, we immediately went back to Rizal Park to watch the Kadayawan street dancing showdown. There were 30 contingents from various davao secondary schools and 10 etchnic tribes of Mindanao who participated in the Indak Indak sa Kaddalanan’s Street performance. Davao’s ethnic tribes, which includes Matigsalog, Tagabawa, Obo-Manobo, Ata, Kalagan, Tausug, Sama, Maguindanao, Maranao and the K’lata/Guiangan has been actively participating in Kadayawan sa Davao Festival.
 
The non Davao based contingents included those from Shariff Aguak, Maguindanao; Mangagoy, Bislig City; Mampasano, Maguindanao; Tampakan, South Cotabato; Digos City; Surallah, South Cotabato; and Tupi, South Cotabato.

 
I’m a big fan of Mindanao’s indeginous music, colorful costumes, culture and Mindanao Festivals particularly Kadayawan never fail to amaze me year after year. Kadayawan is a Bagobo term for celebration of a bountiful harvest, Kadayawan is derived from the aboriginal word “dayao” which means good or “madayaw,” things that are of great value or is profitable, superior or beneficial.
 

The festival started in 1986 which was called “Apo Duwaling” to showcase Mt. Apo, the durian fruit and the waling-waling flower but was renamed to Kadayawan by the city government In 1988.
We were unable to watch all thirty contingents but I can state with certainty that all of them deserve to win and I’m pretty sure the judges had a hard time choosing this year’s festival winners.

 
*Here are the list of Kadayawan Festival 2008 winners:
 
2nd runner up: Contingent from Surallah, South Cotabato
1st runner up: Contingent from Magallanes Elementary School Davao City
Kadayawan Festival 2008 Grand Champion: Contingent from Tampakan, South Cotabato

Source : Eric of Byahilo.com
 
Overall, the Kadayawan Festival 2008 was a huge success! I will definitely go back next year to witness another colorful festival and to visit the city that i consider “My Second Home“.