Cebu Philippines Festivals, Fiestas and Cultural Event

Sinulog Festival Kadaugan sa Mactan Festival Kinabayo Festival

People in Cebu love to celebrate festivals or are fiesta-loving people. Cebu has one of the most colorful and
world-renowned festivals in the Philippines and they celebrate it with excitement and high spirits. Cebu
celebrates different festivals in different towns and cities. Cebu celebrate fiestas with religious rituals and
dancing in the streets to the beat of the drums.

List of Cebu Festivals

Sinulog Festival
3rd Sunday of January (Cebu City)
People shouts "Viva Pit Señor". The Sinulog is Cebu City's most popular and grandest festival. It is celebrated
every 3rd Sunday of January in honor of the Señor Sto. Niño. Foreign and local tourists flock to Cebu City for
this celebration and join in the procession and the grand mardi gras. The Sinulog is a dance-prayer expressing
devotion to the Holy Child. it is popular belief among Cebuanos that this dance-prayer is the most effective
way of getting favors from the Sto. Niño. This festival is world-renowed and the most extravagant festival in
Cebu. The Sinulog festival is celebrated in honour of the holy child Senior Santo Niño. The highlights in this
festivities is the street dancing where merrymakers dance to the beat of the pit senor drums.

Tagbo Festival
19th of January (Poro, Camotes Island)
It is celebrated every January in honor of patron Sto. Niño de Poro. Beloved memoir of a living past, Tagbo is
the corner stone from which this great municipality has sprung. Rich in cultural heritage and deep in spiritual
values, Tagbo is a very significant event precluding the birth of a town very dear to the hearts of her sons and
daughters.

Silmugi Festival
20th of January (Borbon)
"Silmugi" is an old name of the town of Borbon and the festival is in honor of its patron saint for the bountiful
harvest. The street dancing which is one of the highlights is participated in by the different barangays.

Bodbod Festival
10th Of February (Catmon)
The town of Catmon is famous for its tasty "bodbod" and thus is the focus of the festival. The street dancing
competition is participated by the different barangays has its dance movements, the movement of making the
bodbod with the costumes in bodbod concept.

Kabayo Festival
February - Movable (Mandaue City)
Organized by the Cebu Equine Owners, Breeders and Sportsmen Association (CEOBSA), the Kabayo festival is
supported by the DOT. The festival promotes sports tourism, ecotourism and agri-industrial tourism awareness
in the country. The highlights include the parade of horses, horse racing competition and the best decorated
"tartanillas" or horse drawn carriages and features a bazaar and flea market.

Sarok festival
14th of February (Consolacion)
The festival is part of the town's commemoration of their founding anniversary. It is a mardi gras parade and
street dancing along the main thoroughfares with participants using a creative design of "sarok", a native hat
used by the farmers to protect them from the heat of the sun.

Soli-Soli Festival
18th March (San Francisco, Camotes Island)
named after the soli-soli plant which abounds around the lake Danao which is used for mat, bags and hat
weaving and other handicrafts. its freestyle street dancing competition uses soli-soli plant as its dominant
material. The festival adds color to the feast of St. Joseph the Worker.

Tostado Festival
3rd Sunday of April (Santander)
The festival focuses on the town's famous delicacy, the "tostado". The street dancing which is the highlight of
the festivity uses the different movements of making tostado in the dance participated in by the different
barangays.

Haladaya Festival
Easter Sunday (Daan Bantayan)
Starts on Easter Sunday and ends with a street dancing on the seventh day after Easter. Haladaya means
"Halad kang Datu Day", the leader of the first Malayan settlers in Daan bantayan. Highlights include the fluvial
aprade where patron saints of the different barangays will be placed in decorated bancas or motorized
outrigger boats and paraded in the sea.

Kabanhawan Festival
Easter Sunday (Minglanilla)
Showcases the "Sugat" in which the town is known for many years since. The street dancing depicts the joy
felt by the believers when Christ is resurrected. The celebration is grander since it will be followed by a day
long games and entertainment that highlights the endowment of Minglanilla's history, trade and arts.

Bahug-bahug sa Mactan or Kadaugan sa Mactan

22nd - 27th of April (Lapu-Lapu City)
A weeklong commemoration of the historic battle of Mactan between the Spanish Conquestador Fernando
Magallanes and Mactan Chieftain Lapu-Lapu. The festival features various activities highlighted by the series
of musical productions culminating with the famous battle, food street and live band entertainment.

Mantawi Festival
7th of May (Mandaue City)
A showcase of the city's historical heritage and identity promoting the city as an industrial and tourist hub,
that involves the Spanish regime through street dancing, dioramas, floats, food festival, trade fair and sports
event.
Tartanilla Festival
12th of June (Cebu City)
The Tartanilla Festival is Cebu City's way of preserving the tartanilla (horse-drawn carriage) heritage by
reviving the oldest mode of transportation to ply some of the city's streets. The festival coincides with the
city's celebration of the country's Independence Day starting from June 1 to 12. gaily decorated tartanillas
driven by kutseros ply the streets of some of the city's barangays and compete for several awards.

Camotes Cassava Festival

2nd week of June (Tudela, Camotes Island)
A yearly celebration of a bountiful harvest where farmers display their various cassava-based products, share
their varied technical experiences in producing and processing cassava products. Among the activities are the
Best Booth Contest, Poster-making Contest, search for new cassava food products, cultural night and the
search for Miss Camotes Tourism.

Palawod Festival
Last week of June (Bantayan, Bantayan Island)
Palawod is the fishermen's daily toil, their means of livelihood, their life and pride. The street dancing
captures and preserves the Bantayanon's unique traditional fishing rituals inherent to the island through
dancing, music and the visual arts.

Haladaya Festival Inasal Festival Mantawi Festival

Semana Santa sa Bantayan

Holy Thursday and Good Friday (Bantayan, Bantayan Island)
Also known as "Pasko sa Kasakit" Celebrated in Holy Thursday and Good Friday. This is celebrated in the
observance of the Holy Week on Bantayan Island with procession and merry making.