Kasadyahan Festival 2011

Yesterday Iloilo City held the annual Kasadyahan Festival 2011. This event is always held a day before the grand Ati ati contest of the Dinagyang Festival in Iloilo City Philippines.

Kasadyahan is a Hiligaynon term meaning “Merrymaking”. During this event, various festivals from the towns of the Iloilo Province compete around the four judging areas strsategically located along the main roads of Iloilo.

This year, I was provided with a Media ID with juding area #2 assignment. This Kasadyahan 2011, 10 festivals from various town participated together with 2 non competing grooups performed in front of us. Kasadyahan is a good event to drum up th excitement that would climax today during the highlight of the Dinagyang Festival.

Among the 10 competing contingents, the three groups that really caught my fancy were the Kasag Festival of Banate, The Pantat Festival of Zarraga, and the Pagdihon Festival of Dingle.

Kasag is gunning for a 3Peat Championship this year. They were also the 2nd runner up(?) of the Aliwan Fiesta 2010. What made the group standout is their mastergully created costumes. This is probably one of the best costumes of Kasag, as far as I can remember. The routine is good, but I think it lacks a bit more power. I guess this can be attributed to the loss of one of their members last Friday night in a freak accident while the tribe is on their way to Iloilo City. Despite the less energetic performance, my I’d still place my bets on them to win the trophy in this year’s contest..

Kasag Festival

Pantat Festival of Zarraga is really good. The storyline is clear. I love the lightness of the performance. perfectly done.

Dingle’s Pagdihon Festival was a surprise for me. This is my first time to see the festival perform. And I must say, I am very very amazed at their performance. The story of the Cry of Lincud is clearly portrayed during their performance. It like learning History101 only that, you’re watchong a festival performance. The dance is well executed. The facial expressions are very brilliant. I was hooked during the whole performance.

Pagdihon Festival

Later tonight the new winners of the Kasadyahan Festival and th Dinagyang Festival 2011 wil be announced. I hope that my top 3 would end up as winners.

At 8AM today, the Ati tribes will be out in the street for the grand Dinagyang Festival streetdance competition. This year 14 tribes will be competing. I’ll post mor photos soon!

Pantat (catfish) Festival