What is the Kadayawan Festival?
Kadayawan (Kadayawan sa Dabaw) is Davao City's great August thanksgiving: a harvest festival that is also a celebration of the region's indigenous cultures. The name comes from madayaw, a Mandaya word meaning valuable, good, and beautiful. The festival grew out of thanksgiving rituals the city began encouraging in 1970, was formally called the Apo Duwaling Festival by 1986 (after Mount Apo, the durian, and the waling-waling orchid), and was renamed Kadayawan in 1988.
At its heart, Kadayawan honors Davao's eleven ethnolinguistic communities: the Bagobo Tagabawa, Klata, Ata, Matigsalug, Obo Manuvu, and Kagan, along with the Moro peoples, the Maguindanaon, Maranao, Iranun, Sama, and Tausug. Since 2017 their traditional houses have stood together in the Kadayawan Cultural Village at Magsaysay Park, where cultural nights, indigenous games, and gong-and-kulintang music turn the festival into something closer to a living museum than a street party.
And it is unapologetically a harvest festival. August is durian season in Davao, and Magsaysay Park's fruit stalls are a classic place to eat the "king of fruits" on the spot. Alongside the durian come mangosteen, rambutan, pomelo, and marang, the abundance that the whole thanksgiving is built around. A separate Kadayawan Durian Festival, the twelfth, ran through September 11 in 2026, so the fruit outlasts the parades.
Valuable, good, and beautiful: a whole harvest, and eleven cultures, thanked in one word.
Dancers in colorful costumes perform in the Kadayawan street parade
Photo by Jeff Pioquinto, SJ / flickr · CC BY 2.0
What to expect
The shape of the festival is consistent from year to year: an opening ceremony, a week of cultural programs, and a grand parade weekend. The program below follows the 2026 edition, themed "We Are One, KadayaONE!" and announced by the City Tourism Operations Office as 26 official events through August.
Aug 7 (2026)
Pag-Abli at Magsaysay Park
The festival opened with the ceremonial gong strike of Pag-Abli at Magsaysay Park, alongside the Subang Sinugdanan, a reenactment of the barter traditions of the eleven groups. Come to the park early in the run: the traditional houses and durian stalls cluster here, and the week is at its quietest and most intimate before the crowds arrive.
Aug 8–15 (2026)
Pageants, cultural nights, and music
The program fills out with the Dayaw arts, culture and film festival (August 8–15), Bantawan cultural nights (August 10–12), the Hiyas sa Kadayawan grand coronation (August 13), and Agong ug Kulintangan gong-and-kulintang music at Rizal Park (August 15, 1 to 6pm). A floriculture and agri-trade fair ran from August 7 to 23.
Aug 16 (2026)
Pamulak and Indak-Indak
The climax. The Pamulak floral-float judging begins before dawn, and the Indak-Indak sa Kadalanan street-dance competition sets off around 6am down Roxas Avenue toward San Pedro Square. In 2026 the grand showdown moved for the first time to the Coastal Road at Tulip Drive, where a record crowd of about 120,000 watched. It is serious competition: the open-category champion took home a P1.5 million prize (P1 million in 2025), with 13 contingents competing.
Planning your trip
Getting there
Francisco Bangoy International Airport (DVO) is roughly 30 minutes to an hour from downtown, depending on traffic. Nonstop flights from Manila take about two hours, and Cebu Pacific and Philippine Airlines both fly the route. Once in the city, expect road closures and larger crowds on parade day. If you are pairing Kadayawan with Southeast Asian festivals, the George Town Festival in Penang runs in early August and the Dieng Culture Festival in Java in late August; for a second Philippine street-dance festival, come back in January for Sinulog in Cebu.
Where to stay
For the parades, base yourself downtown. Roxas Avenue and the San Pedro Square area put you on the route itself; Matina or Ecoland offer quieter, cheaper rooms a short ride out. The grand weekend sells out, so book early and confirm the date of the local holiday first. It is declared by presidential proclamation each year: August 15 in 2025 and August 14 in 2026, alongside Indigenous Peoples' Day.
What it costs
The street parade and cultural events are public events, and street food and durian are cheap. Your main costs are the domestic flight to Davao and a downtown hotel, which surges for the grand weekend. We could not find reliable current hotel rates, so check live prices before you budget. August in Davao is hot and humid, so pack light cotton and comfortable walking shoes.
Go like you know
- Stake out Roxas Avenue early on parade day: the street dance sets off around 6am, which also means the best light and the thinnest crowds.
- After the parade passes, head toward San Pedro Square, the route's endpoint, to photograph the Indak-Indak performers up close in full costume.
- Start at Magsaysay Park: eat durian straight from the stalls and walk the eleven traditional houses of the Cultural Village.
- Travel light on parade day. With umbrellas, backpacks, and jackets banned from event areas, a small bag, a hat, and a clear water bottle are enough (opaque water containers were on the 2026 banned list).
- Book downtown early; leave Matina or Ecoland as your fallback if the parade-route hotels are gone.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need tickets for the parades?
The Pamulak floral parade and Indak-Indak street dance are public events along Roxas Avenue and need no ticket to watch from the route. Check the city's official calendar for any seating rules at the showdown venue. Your main costs are the domestic flight to Davao and a downtown hotel, plus street food and durian.
When is Kadayawan held?
Every August, with the parades on the third Sunday of the month: August 17 in 2025 and August 16 in 2026. The 2027 day-level program has not been published, so expect a core program of roughly ten days climaxing on the third Sunday, and confirm before booking.
Is one day enough?
You can catch the essence in a day if you time it for the grand weekend: the morning parade on Roxas Avenue, then Magsaysay Park for durian and the tribal village. But the cultural nights, pageants, and kulintang music across the week are the quieter heart of Kadayawan, and worth more than a single day.
