Kadayawan Highlights: Sayaw Kadayawan

From August 5 to August 21, Kadayawan Festival has a lot of activities and sights for tourists to experience featuring Davao’s tribes. Namely their culture, artisan, dances, music, and food among other things. Sayaw Kadayawan is just one of the activities you can experience during the Kadayawan Festival.

Kadayawan Highlights: Sayaw Kadayawan

This year, Sayaw Kadayawan was held on August 18 at Magsaysay Park in Bantawan Amphitheater. The children category was from 9 AM to 12 NN while the open category was held from 1:30 PM to 5:30 PM. The winners from both categories are announced after until 7 PM.

Watch performers from all over Mindanao, not just from Davao, show off their skills in dance and music. Each performance tells a story unique to the tribe they come from. In all performances, they do not make use of recorded songs. They bring individually, per group, their own traditional instruments, and singers who sing traditional songs of the tribes they represent. The show is a wonderful waltz of live singing and instrumentals paired with dance.

Children category

There were 6 entries for the children category held in the morning. The winner was from Lapu-Lapu Elementary School with their performance of the Bagobo tribe. Rojas Central Elementary School from Cotabato City got 2^nd place while Magallanes Elementary School got 3^rd place.

Watch their live performances here.

Open category

For the open category, there were 14 entries from all over Mindanao. The championing troupe was the Madayaw Cultural Ensemble. Agro Industrial College Dance Troupe got 2^nd place while Ilathala Performing Artists got 3^rd place.

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Watch their live performances here.

Tips and recommendations

Whether rain or shine, the show still goes on! If you want to add Sayaw Kadayawan to your itinerary next year, here are some tips you might want to remember.

1. Go early and save your seat. If you plan to watch Sayaw Kadayawan, it is best to arrive before 9 AM. Even though the program is divided into two with a lunch break in the middle, other people seldom leave their seats. It takes a long while for seats near the stage to be available at a later time. If you get the chance to save your seat, do so on house left (facing the stage, these are the seats to your left). The view there is not blocked by huge poles so you could get better pictures and videos.
2. Bring a hand fan. People from all over Mindanao come to Magsaysay Park once a month to watch Sayaw Kadayawan. It is not surprising that there would be a huge crowd in the audience, sitting and standing. Hence, it gets hot during the show especially since Bantawan Amphitheater is an open stage. Do not forget to bring water, a hand fan, and a towelette to help you cool down as you enjoy the show.
3. Be clean as you go. Bring your trash with you and throw them in the proper bins. Do not leave your garbage where you are seated when you leave since others might want to sit there after you. Janitors are not going around to clean after the audience during the performances. To do otherwise is also just bad manners overall.

Look forward to next year’s Kadayawan Festival and Sayaw Kadayawan! For more information, follow their official Facebook page at Kadayawan sa Davao.