Kadayawan in Pictures

So my jam-packed Kadayawan is over. It was a great weekend, but quite exhausting by the end! Now that I am all caught up on sleep, here is my Kadayawan weekend in pictures.

First Cee and I grabbed some tasty tapas at Hola Espana on Thursday evening. We had paella too, but it looked so good, I didn't have a time to grab a pic before we dug in:

Next up, a rock concert at Damosa (all the events are free!). Manila Light beer was doing a promotion so there was free beer all night...surprisingly things stayed pretty calm:


Friday was a holiday so I slept in and then headed to NCCC Mall in the afternoon to pick up a few more things from the Fair Trade Sale. I also stopped to hear a reggae band perform for a bit:

Next I made my way over to downtown to meet up with friends at a trade expo at Central Bank. There was a fashion show, some products and art pieces on display, and I did a ton of Christmas shopping:

The fashion designer of these pieces is a Davao icon


I really loved this matching hair piece and purse

My co-worker said the creator of this display is way famous!

On Saturday I headed with friends downtown to see the street dancing showdown! In the morning street dancing groups from different schools all over Mindanao paraded through the city. The showdown was to determine the winning group. This was what I really wanted to see during Kadayawan above everything else. It was so packed with people and when Davao schools performed, everyone went crazy for them! So needless to say, it was hard to get good pictures, but here are my attempts:

Coke was sponsoring...can't you tell?

The costumes and props are amazing!

This picture is for my Midwest friends -- look -- I can't escape corn no matter where I go!

Yes, those are little kids climbing ladders being held up by people below...they survived!

I took a picture of these drummers because they rocked it out!

After a quick shower at home, I headed back downtown to People's Park to see a hip hop dance competition:

People's Park at night

The judges show off their stuff first

This crew was great, but the guy in the middle cracked the stage when they all did backflips.

The concert was on hold for a while after the stage cracked so we headed to Matina Town Square for some live music. This band performed and they were fabulous. The group is called Mebuyan, they are folksy (as we would say in the U.S.) My friend said they are the most "Kadayawan" thing we saw, their music is very immersed in the culture and they promote peace in Mindanao:

I have video of this group but couldn't get it loaded with the net connections I have, hopefully I'll get it up soon, they are so good!

Finally, the weekend ended on Sunday when I headed back downtown to see the final parade, consisting of floral floats:

In the background is the Davao cathedral

And that's it! Doesn't it make you want to come visit!?!