The Ati-Atihan Festival

What: The Moth­er of all Fes­ti­val in the Philip­pines, the Ati-Ati­han Fes­ti­val hon­ours the baby Jesus (San­to Nino) and cel­e­brates a peace pact between tribes from 1210 with a week-long par­ty – that fea­tures dai­ly ear­ly morn­ing parades, Trib­al music, Cos­tumes, float parades, Street Danc­ing, bless­ings and even night-time snake dances.

Open to both locals and tourists and the devout and agnos­tic, the Ati-Ati­han is also known for its colour and bright ear­ly morn­ing streets parades – which fol­low a dif­fer­ent theme all day, and are open to any­one who’s wear­ing an eas­i­ly pur­chasable fes­ti­val mask to par­tic­i­pate in – and inevitably end in a series of street dances backed up the sound of local artists  who pro­vide the rhyth­mic drum beats that echo over the city of Kali­bo for the full week.

As well as hav­ing three ded­i­cat­ed days of the fes­ti­val for both food, drink and spir­i­tu­al Street danc­ing, the Ati-Ati­han also main­tains its reli­gious prin­ci­ples, with dai­ly purifi­ca­tion and heal­ing cer­e­monies and a final cer­e­mo­ny which see’s both a pro­ces­sion parad­ing the image of San­to Nino and a torch pro­ces­sion which guides atten­dees to the cathe­dral to observe mass – mak­ing the Ati-Ati­han fes­ti­val a unique oppor­tu­ni­ty

When: The fes­ti­val runs for a full week – begin­ning every year on the sec­ond Mon­day of Jan­u­ary and last­ing until the third Sun­day – with the last two days of the fes­ti­val on the week­end con­sid­ered to be the best days to attend.

Where: The Ati-Ati­han takes place in the town of Kali­bo in the  Philip­pines – with the main area of the fes­ti­val being in the main plaza, Magsaysay Park and the streets that lead the way to the Kali­bo cathe­dral where the final torch pro­ces­sion takes place.

Dura­tion: The fes­ti­val takes place over the course of a week, with the parades begin­ning each day from day­break – and you can expect to see peo­ple lin­ing the streets to watch from 4am – and for those who make it through the days con­ga and drink head­ing to the after par­ties that begin at 7pm at Magsaysay Park.

While each day has a dif­fer­ent theme, the best days to attend are the last two days on the week­end – where along­side the ear­ly morn­ing parades, the big three days of drink and the Magsaysay Park after par­ties – the Sat­ur­day fea­tures the biggest parade of the fes­ti­val along­side bless­ings and trib­utes and the Sun­day fea­tures both the parad­ing of the image of San­to Nino and the end of fes­ti­val torch pro­ces­sion that begins at approx­i­mate­ly 5pm.

Tick­ets: The Ati-Ati­han fes­ti­val is not only free to watch – but audi­ence par­tic­i­pa­tion is strong­ly encour­aged regard­less of your race. So for the max­i­mum expe­ri­ence of the fes­ti­val it’s encour­aged to buy a trib­al face mask from one of the many stalls in Kali­bo and join in the parade. You will also find a series of after parade par­ties that take place in Magsaysay Park – for these you can expect to pay a small fee and be warned that the par­ties are con­duct­ed in Fil­ipino lan­guage.

Need to Know: The Ati-Ati­han  fes­ti­val is incred­i­bly pop­u­lar in the Philip­pines – so it’s rec­om­mend­ed to book flights and accom­mo­da­tion some six months in advance – and to car­ry your own water and keep your belong­ings safe when watch­ing or par­tic­i­pat­ing in the parades.