What is Kadayawan Festival

Davao City spends the third week of August in a Kadayawan festival costume built from beadwork, brass bells and hand-loomed cloth, one look for each of the city’s 11 recognized ethnic groups. The festival takes its name from madayaw, a word from the Mandaya language meaning good, valuable or beautiful. What began as a small harvest offering at the foot of Mount Apo now fills Davao’s streets with a citywide dance competition and a floral float parade every August.

This guide covers what that tribal costume looks like by group, the harvest history behind the celebration, its August schedule, and the two parades that close it out. Davao City sits on Mindanao, the Philippines’ second largest island, home to both indigenous Lumad communities and Muslim Moro communities.

At a Glance

Location	Davao City, Mindanao
When	Third week of August
Celebrates	Harvest thanksgiving and Davao’s ethnic diversity
Name from	Madayaw, a Mandaya word for good, valuable or beautiful
Groups represented	11, split into five Lumad and six Moro
Key events	Indak-Indak sa Kadalanan street dance, Pamulak Kadayawan float parade
Permanent venue	Kadayawan Village, Magsaysay Park

What Is Kadayawan Festival?

Kadayawan sa Dabaw, its full local name, is Davao City’s annual thanksgiving festival for a good harvest and a peaceful year. Dabaw is the older, indigenous form of the city’s name.

Kadayawan folds three ideas into one week: gratitude for the fruit and flower harvest around Mount Apo, pride in Davao’s ethnic diversity, and a citywide festival built to draw tourists. That costume sits at the center of the second idea, since every tribal outfit on display answers one question: what does this specific community wear, and why.

History: From Pahinungod to a City-Wide Festival

Long before Kadayawan had a name, communities around Mount Apo practiced Pahinungod, a harvest offering held after a good growing season. Farmers laid fruit, root crops, rice and flowers on woven mats and gave thanks to Manama, their term for a supreme being, through song and dance.

Organized city celebrations followed decades later. In the 1970s the Mindanao Highlanders Association, or Mindahila, ran a cultural festival called Kalibongan. Davao mayor Elias B. Lopez, of Bagobo descent, backed tribal thanksgiving events that brought the city’s Muslim and indigenous communities together.

In 1986, under mayor Zafiro Respicio, the city merged its harvest celebrations into Apo Duwaling, honoring three local icons: Mount Apo, the country’s highest peak; durian, often called king of Philippine fruit; and waling-waling, a native orchid nicknamed queen of Philippine flowers.

Two years later, mayor Rodrigo Duterte, later President of the Philippines, renamed the celebration Kadayawan sa Dabaw, refocusing it on the harvest thanksgiving behind madayaw. Duterte locked the festival into Davao’s calendar through City Executive Order No. 10 in 1995.

Davao opened a permanent Kadayawan Village at Magsaysay Park in 2017, where all 11 tribes keep a traditional house and demonstrate weaving, cooking and craft each year.

The 11 Ethnic Groups of Davao City

Davao City officially recognizes 11 ethnolinguistic groups, split into two categories used across Mindanao: Lumad and Moro. Lumad, a Bisaya word meaning native or born of the earth, refers to non-Muslim indigenous peoples of Mindanao. Moro refers to the region’s Muslim ethnic groups, a term Spanish colonizers first applied by comparing Mindanao’s Muslims to the Moors of North Africa, later adopted by the groups themselves as a political identity.

The five Lumad tribes trace their homeland to the slopes of Mount Apo and the river valleys around it. The six Moro tribes settled Davao’s coastline and river mouths generations ago, carrying textile and metalworking traditions shared across Mindanao and Sulu.

Group	Category	Homeland	Signature craft
Bagobo-Klata	Lumad	Mount Apo slopes	Beadwork and abaca
Bagobo-Tagabawa	Lumad	Mount Apo slopes	Inabal ikat cloth
Ata	Lumad	River valleys near Mount Apo	Beaded jackets
Ovu Manuvu	Lumad	River valleys near Mount Apo	Red, black and white beadwork
Matigsalug	Lumad	River valleys near Mount Apo	Diamond and zigzag embroidery
Maguindanaon	Moro	Davao coastline	Inaul weaving
Maranao	Moro	Davao coastline	Okir and the sarimanok
Tausug	Moro	Davao coastline	Pis siyabit headscarf
Iranun	Moro	Davao coastline	Pako rabong and naga okir
Sama	Moro	Davao Gulf	Tepo mats and boat carving
Kagan	Moro	Davao Gulf coast	Geometric malong and shell work

The lineup has not stayed fixed. Earlier festival material grouped communities differently, and Davao’s current 11 tribes reflect an ongoing conversation about which identities the city recognizes. What has held steady is the format: each group keeps a house in Kadayawan Village and fields its own delegation for the street dance and tribal games. Readers curious how Lumad and Moro identities fit into the country’s wider indigenous landscape can read our guide to indigenous tribes of the Philippines.

The Kadayawan Festival Costume: Tribal Attire by Group

The costume is never one fixed outfit. It changes by tribe, gender and role, built from materials each community has worked for generations. What follows breaks down the fabric, color and ornament of each of Davao’s 11 groups, split by the same Lumad and Moro categories the city uses.

The Five Lumad Tribes: Beadwork, Ikat and Abaca

Lumad costume in Davao leans on abaca, a fiber stripped from a banana relative, and on beadwork sewn directly onto dark base cloth.

The Bagobo-Tagabawa are custodians of inabal, an abaca cloth dyed using ikat: weavers tie off sections of thread and dye them before weaving, so the pattern locks into the fiber itself. Inabal comes in deep reds, blacks and earth tones, often carrying the binuwaya, or crocodile, motif across skirts and sashes.

Weaver Salinta Monon, a Bagobo-Tagabawa from Bansalan, Davao del Sur, earned the Gawad sa Manlilikha ng Bayan, the country’s National Living Treasure award, in 1998 for keeping inabal weaving alive.

The other four Lumad tribes work the same materials into distinct looks:

• Ata. Bold beadwork, stitching triangles and zigzags onto jackets in patterns read as mountains and rivers, framed in abaca or rattan trim.
• Matigsalug. Diamonds and zigzags embroidered onto dark base fabric, finished with fringes of layered beads that sway as dancers move.
• Ovu Manuvu. Red, black and white, with tassels, cross-stitch embroidery and dense beadwork on jackets and headdresses.
• Bagobo-Klata. The region’s beadwork and abaca traditions, with patterns and colorways kept distinct from their Tagabawa relatives.

Lumad beadwork patterns sometimes draw from a weaver’s own dreams, giving a piece meaning specific to its maker.

The Six Moro Tribes: Inaul, Okir and Malong

Moro costume in Davao centers on the malong, a wide tube of woven cloth worn as a skirt, shawl or sling, and on okir, the flowing plant and animal based pattern shared across Mindanao’s Muslim groups.

The Maguindanaon weave inaul, a handwoven textile in shimmering stripes and checks, often shot through with metallic thread that turns an ordinary malong into a formal piece. Inaul has its own dedicated festival in Maguindanao province, a sign of how much value the cloth carries beyond Kadayawan.

The remaining five Moro tribes each bring their own signature:

• Maranao. Okir in curling plant-based lines, plus the sarimanok, a multicolored mythical bird from Maranao legend. Both appear on malong and on langkit, the narrow bands sewn along a malong’s edge.
• Tausug. The pis siyabit, a square headscarf woven in tight geometric grids, paired with the suwal, a patterned trouser and top combination.
• Iranun. Curving and angular okir across shields, boats and textiles, in motifs like pako rabong, a curling fern leaf, and the naga, a mythical serpent.
• Sama. Known less for garment weaving than for the tepo, a patterned mat woven from pandanus or buri palm, alongside boat carving from their seafaring history.
• Kagan. Moro textile patterns with a maritime identity: geometric malong, beadwork and shell ornaments that nod to generations spent near the water.

Costume for Female and Male Dancers

Within any tribe, the costume for female performers usually carries more ornament than the male version: full beaded panels, layered malong or wraparound skirts, and headpieces built from feathers, beads or brass, since women typically lead the choreography. Fitted blouses in tribal colors pair with a malong wrapped for fast footwork.

The costume for male performers trades ornament for structure: looser tops or vests, often bare-chested among Lumad tribes to show off body paint or tattoo work, paired with woven trousers or a shorter wrap. Shields, spears and farm tools appear as props, standing in for the harvest and hunting roles Davao’s tribes associate with men. Brass belts hung with small bells add sound the way anklets do for the women.

Neither version follows a strict rule. Choreographers adjust ornament and fabric weight to match the movement their contingent performs that year.

The Kadayawan Festival Queen Costume

Davao also crowns queens and princesses tied to the festival, most visibly through the Hiyas sa Kadayawan pageant, where each of the 11 tribes fields a representative. A Kadayawan festival queen costume blends a tribe’s authentic textile, whether inabal, inaul or beaded Lumad cloth, with pageant-level tailoring rarely seen on the street dance contingents: fitted bodices, structured trains and taller headdresses built for a stage rather than hours of dancing.

Unlike the street dancers, queen candidates are judged partly on how faithfully their gown represents real tribal weaving rather than on original design alone.

A sash or crown usually carries a small version of her tribe’s signature motif, the binuwaya for Bagobo-Tagabawa or the sarimanok for Maranao.

August Schedule: When Kadayawan Happens

Kadayawan runs every August, timed to the region’s fruit harvest, though its shape changes year to year. The 2026 celebration compresses events into a roughly two-week run rather than the month-long calendar used in recent years, closing with a culmination weekend built around two signature events.

This year’s culmination lands on August 16, 2026, following two lead-up days: Agong ug Kulintangan sa Kadayawan on August 14, a gong and kulintang showcase, and Dula Kadayawan and Konsierto Kadayawan on August 15, mixing traditional games with a concert. Malacañang declared August 14, 2026 a special non-working holiday in Davao City for the celebration.

Alongside the main program, Davao runs the Kadayawan Floriculture and Agri-Trade Fair through the month, a food truck bazaar at Rizal Park from August 13 to 16, and a Dayaw Art Walk through the city’s cultural district. Visitors planning a trip can check our guide to things to do in Davao City for lodging and route ideas, and our full Kadayawan Festival guide covers transport and event listings in more depth.

Indak-Indak sa Kadalanan: The Street Dance Competition

Indak-Indak sa Kadalanan, literally dancing in the streets, is Kadayawan’s headline event, the one most closely tied to the tribal costume itself. Contingents from Davao’s districts and its 11 ethnic groups perform choreographed routines built around each tribe’s history, music and dress, competing along a judged parade route.

The 2026 competition fields ten contingents in the open division and five in the school-based category, each routine timed to move a full costumed group down a street course while judges score choreography, music and costume together. Prize money has grown alongside the event: the open division’s 2026 grand winner takes home 1.5 million pesos, the school-based winner 1 million pesos.

The Grand Showdown venue moved to the Davao City Coastal Road along Tulip Drive for 2026. Music matters as much as costume in judging, since many tribes perform to live gong and kulintang ensembles, tying the dance back to instruments the same tribes still play at home.

Pamulak Kadayawan: The Floral Float Parade

Pamulak Kadayawan, held the same day as Indak-Indak, is Davao’s floral float parade. Local groups build floats from fresh flowers and harvested produce rather than paper or plastic, a rule that keeps the event tied to its harvest origins even as float design has grown more elaborate.

Recent floats have taken the shape of the Philippine eagle, a bird native to Mindanao’s forests, and the waling-waling orchid, one of the three icons behind the festival’s earlier Apo Duwaling name. The 2026 float parade carries its own 1 million peso grand prize, judged on craftsmanship, use of local materials and how well a float represents Davao’s identity.

Together, Pamulak and Indak-Indak close the festival on the same culmination day, turning Davao’s main streets into a single procession of floats, costumed dancers and drumbeats.

The Fruit Harvest Kadayawan Celebrates

Kadayawan’s core purpose has not changed since its Pahinungod roots: giving thanks for a good harvest. Davao del Sur and the surrounding region grow much of the country’s durian, a thorn-covered fruit prized, and avoided, for its smell, along with pomelo, mangosteen, marang and lanzones, all shown at the Kadayawan Floriculture and Agri-Trade Fair alongside the festival’s street events.

Durian carries special weight in Davao’s civic identity, as one of the three icons behind Apo Duwaling, the 1986 precursor to Kadayawan, alongside Mount Apo and the waling-waling orchid. Durian stalls stay a fixture of the food fair every year. Waling-waling, a native Philippine orchid found wild in Mindanao’s forests, still appears throughout Kadayawan branding and in Pamulak’s floats, decades after it gave the pre-Kadayawan festival its name.

The fruit and flower harvest gives the festival its reason for existing. The tribal costume, dance and float competitions are how Davao says thank you for it publicly, every August.

A Festival Built on 11 Distinct Wardrobes

A Kadayawan festival costume tells you which of Davao’s 11 tribes you are looking at before a single word is spoken: the crocodile motif of Bagobo-Tagabawa inabal, the metallic stripe of Maguindanaon inaul, the sarimanok curling across a Maranao malong. That variety is the point. Davao spends one week in August turning generations of weaving, beadwork and harvest ritual into a single street celebration.

Kadayawan is one entry in a longer calendar of Philippine harvest and tribal festivals, and our Fashion category tracks the textiles and festival dress behind celebrations like it.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does the Kadayawan festival costume mean?

Each tribal costume at Kadayawan represents a specific group’s textile tradition rather than one shared theme. Motifs like the crocodile pattern on Bagobo-Tagabawa inabal or the sarimanok on a Maranao malong show which of Davao’s 11 tribes a dancer represents. Some patterns, particularly Lumad beadwork, tie to a weaver’s own dreams or family history.

Is there one name for the Kadayawan festival costume?

No single name covers it. Each tribe’s textile carries its own name: inabal for Bagobo-Tagabawa abaca cloth, inaul for Maguindanaon weaving, malong for the wide tube skirt worn across Moro groups. The phrase covers all of these garments collectively, not one outfit.

What props go with a Kadayawan festival costume?

Props vary by tribe and by the story a routine tells. Lumad contingents often carry farming tools, woven baskets or spears tied to harvest and hunting themes, while Moro contingents use shields, brass gongs or carved wooden pieces that echo their weapon and boat carving traditions.

What does a Kadayawan festival queen wear?

Kadayawan’s queen candidates, chosen through the Hiyas sa Kadayawan pageant, wear a costume built from a tribe’s real weaving rather than an original design. Judges score how faithfully the gown reflects tribal textile and ornament, and many candidates commission pieces directly from tribal weavers instead of costume shops.

When is Kadayawan Festival 2026?

Kadayawan 2026 culminates on August 16, following build-up events on August 14 and 15. The Philippine government declared August 14, 2026 a special non-working holiday in Davao City, and the two main parades, Pamulak and Indak-Indak sa Kadalanan, both take place on the closing day.

Works Cited

City Government of Davao. “35 Years of Celebrating Kadayawan.” Davao City Tourism, davaocity.gov.ph/tourism/35-years-of-celebrating-kadayawan/.

“Fashion of the Tribes.” SunStar Davao, SunStar Philippines, 16 Aug. 2025, www.sunstar.com.ph/davao/fashion-of-the-tribes.

“Kadayawan Honors 11 Davao City Tribes.” Tribune, 23 Aug. 2024, tribune.net.ph/2024/08/23/kadayawan-honors-11-davao-city-tribes.

“Kadayawan 2026: Pamulak, Indak-Indak Set on August 16.” SunStar Davao, SunStar Philippines, sunstar.com.ph/davao/kadayawan-2026-pamulak-indak-indak-set-on-august-16.

National Commission for Culture and the Arts. “Salinta Monon, National Living Treasure (Manlilikha ng Bayan) for Weaving Tradition.” NCCA, ncca.gov.ph/about-culture-and-arts/culture-profile/gamaba/national-living-treasures-salinta-monon/.