The Cordillera Festival of Festivals in Baguio City
Visiting Baguio has been a yearly tradition ever since I started traveling and writing about it. For more than a decade already, either for a planned personal trip or for a media invite given at a short notice, a year would not pass without finding myself strolling along the sloping avenues and icy mountain air of the country's summer capital.
My favorite spot in the city, and I bet many visitors have theirs too, is the historical Session Road. The 1.7-kilometer thoroughfare, arguably the most traversed road in Baguio, is abundantly lined with diners, shopping outlets and other business establishments. And as if those are not yet enough of things-to-do, the usually traffic jammed road transforms into a linear park on weekends, when it is close to vehicular traffic to give way to artists, buskers and other performers entertaining Baguio families and city guests.
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| Cordillera Festival of Festivals 2024 held in Baguio City | via DOT-Cordillera Administrative Region |
But my recent trip to the so-called City of Pines saw the stretch of Session Road being a witness to an ensemble of cultural celebrations—the Cordillera Festival of Festivals. This annual event is a grand exhibition of the major festivals celebrated by the landlocked provinces and cities of the mountainous Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), giving its spectators a glimpse to the sights and sounds of each jovial occasion.
Here’s a list of the festivals showcased during the most recent event held on October 18, 2024 in Baguio City.
Abra's Kawayan Festival
The celebration of Abra's founding anniversary is also a celebration of the province's deep connection to bamboo, or kawayan in Ilocano. The Kawayan Festival highlights bamboo’s cultural and economic significance to the province and the bamboo wood's versatility, which symbolizes the strength and resilience of the people of Abra.
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| Kawayan Festival dancers from Abra | via DOT-Cordillera Administrative Region |
The annual event honors the Abrenian artistry and creativity through the exhibits of local bamboo products, as well the diversity of Abra's communities, including the Ilocano and Itneg people, by showcasing the unique tradition and crafts from each town.
Re-established as a province in 1917, the Kawayan Festival coincides with Abra's Foundation Day every 9th of May.
Benguet's Adivay Festival
The term “adivay” by the Ibalois, “alibay” by the Kankanaeys, and “allibay” by the Kalanguyas, all means "coming together and having fun," which is the essence of Benguet province's Adivay Festival.
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| Adivay Festival contingents during the parade |
The event is a gathering of the tribes of Benguet to share together their cultural beliefs and unique customs, a celebration that promotes unity among the province's indigenous communities. The festival is characterized by traditional rituals, chants, and dances, and a showcase of local products, handicrafts and the noteworthy flavors of Benguet.
Adivay Festival happens in November and is dedicated to rediscovering Benguet's rich history, culture, arts, trades and industries.
Kulpi ad Ifugao
For its primeval, world-renowned terraced fields, rice is a central part of the Ifugao culture.
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| Kulpi ad Ifugao performance |
"Kulpi" is an age-old ritual that the Ifugaos perform right after the rice seedlings have been planted to beseech the deities and spirits for the protection of the crops and a bountiful harvest. It is performed from one house to another and ends at a spacious granary where the mumbaki (native priest), together with the participating villagers, gather for a great feast and drink rice wine before returning to their homes and wait for the harvest season.
A celebration to promote the best of Ifugao's rich culture, the week-long festivities takes place in April at the provincial capital Lagawe.
Kalinga's Bodong Festival
"Bodong" refers to the indigenous judicial system of the Kalinga people, a peaceful means of ending conflicts between individuals or tribes, within or between different villages. Since ancient times, enforcing bodong has maintained the peace and order among the Kalinga communities.
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| Bodong Festival on the streets |
Kalinga's yearly celebration of peace and harmony is held in February, along with the observance of the province's founding when it was separated from Apayao in 1995.
The most notable Bodong Festival is the one held in 2023, when the event's crowning highlight, Awong Chi Gangsa (the call of a thousand gongs) and Agtu'n Chi Banga (the dance of a thousand pots), featured a whopping 3,440 male gong players and 4,681 female banga (claypot) dancers, which collectively bagged two Guinness world records.
Say-am naya Apayao
Another festivity that stemmed from the split of the erstwhile Kalinga-Apayao province is the half-month long celebration of Say-am Festival, the grandest in the Province of Apayao.
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| Say-am Festival of Apayao province | via DOT-Cordillera Administrative Region |
"Say-am," derived from an Isnag word whose meaning is akin to merrymaking, reflects the centuries-old social customs and agricultural practices of the Isneg people, Apayao's earliest inhabitants whose settlements were mostly along the upland rivers.
Traditionally, the Say-am celebration was a time for the farmers to praise the gods for a bountiful harvest and to seek blessings for the next planting season. Since the first festival that took place in 1996, it has become Apayao's commemoration of its founding anniversary every 14th of February, like in Kalinga. The panaga-angrad (indigenous games) is among the revels of Say-am naya Apayao.
Lang-ay Festival of Mountain Province
Yet another founding anniversary celebration, Lang-ay Festival features the gathering of Mountain Province's 10 municipalities, signifying fellowship, or lang-ay in the local language. Nurturing friendships, strengthening family ties and fostering brotherhood—this spirit of camaraderie is a customary living tradition among the people of the province.
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| Lang-ay Festival highlights the textiles of Mountian Province | via DOT-Cordillera Administrative Region |
During the summertime (April) festival, the contingents from each municipality partake in street dances, indigenous games and vibrant cultural presentations, which resonates with the province's rich heritage.
The week-long Lang-ay Festival transpires in the capital Bontoc, usually culminating on April 7, the day when the present Mountain Province was established in 1967.
Tabuk's Kopyan Chi Matagoan
At the heart of Kalinga's capital city, Tabuk's own festival portrays the Tabukeño way of life, values and shared culture. It highlights the palanus, the first among the series of customary rituals that the Tabukeños follow when a man and a woman, either from the same or different tribes, decides to tie the knot. It is much like the Tagalog tradition of pamamanhikan.
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| Kopyan Chi Matagoan contingents |
Another element that underscores the importance of family is gabbok, where the first-born infant is dedicated to the cosmic gods, a ceremony believed to protect the child and the future siblings from illnesses.
Kopyan Chi Matagoan embodies this colorful tapestry of life in the City of Tabuk.
Baguio's Panagbenga Festival
Perhaps the most prominent Cordilleran festival and unlike the rest which are of indigenous roots, the contemporary Panagbenga Festival of Baguio transforms the city into a mere standstill for its vivid spectacle of flower-laden parade floats.
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| Ladies of Panagbenga Festival | via DOT-Cordillera Administrative Region |
Formerly called Baguio Flower Festival when it was first launched in 1996, its name was changed to "panagbenga," a Kankanaey word meaning "season of blooming," reflecting the essence of the annual event that lasts the entire month of February.
The 3rd Cordillera Festival of Festivals
The 2024 edition of the festival concurred with the National Indigenous People’s Month. Clad in their tribe’s unique traditional patterned garments, this year’s festival contingents gathered after sunrise in Upper Session Road. They then marched down the avenue, taking pit stops at designated points to dance under the cool, morning sun to the accompaniment of Cordillera’s iconic gong music.
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| DOT-CAR Regional Director Jovita Ganongan delivering her Opening Remarks |
With local dignitaries and the witnessing crowd waiting, the parade ended in Malcolm Square where the local festival presenters performed their interpretative dance numbers, each production encapsulating their community’s cultural heritage. "The festivals we witness today are far more than mere spectacles; they are windows into the soul of the people who proudly call the Cordilleras home. These celebrations bring to life the deep-rooted traditions that shape the cultural identity of this remarkable region," said Department of Tourism (DOT) Undersecretary, Myra Paz Valderrosa-Abubakar, in a message delivered on behalf of Secretary Christina Garcia-Frasco.
As a symbol of harmony and solidarity among the region’s distinct communities, the program climaxed with all the performers gyrating to the festival’s “Unifying Dance.”
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| Unifying Dance of the Cordillera Festival of Festivals 2024 | via DOT-Cordillera Administrative Region |
Cultural Tourism
Recognizing the immense potential of cultural tourism as a catalyst for drawing travelers seeking one-of-a-kind experiences, the DOT-CAR staged the first Festival of Festivals in 2022, along with its efforts to revitalize the tourism industry that had taken a hard beating during the recent pandemic.
The event also established a platform to perpetuate Cordillera’s distinctive heritage that is said to predate the Spanish arrival in the region. “By celebrating their (provinces and cities) unique heritage, we reinforce our shared identity and foster a sense of togetherness that is vital for the prosperity and recognition of the Cordillera,” said DOT-CAR Regional Director Jovita Ganongan in her opening message.
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| Bodong Festival performance |
In the last three years since the festival’s pilot edition, the yearly revelries transpired in Baguio City—Cordillera’s melting pot and regional center—but plans are underway for the highlands of Abra, Apayao, Benguet, Ifugao, Kalinga and Mountain Province to also become the venue of this cultural ensemble. It is such a colorful addition to the already long list of reasons to “find yourself in the Cordilleras,” as the DOT-CAR’s tourism catchline puts it.
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DJ Rivera is an I.T. professional, entrepreneur, travel blogger, writer and the online publisher of PinoyTravelogue.com based in Rizal province, Philippines. Click here to know more.
