page_title: Dinagyang
section_title: Celebration
hierarchical_section_title: Dinagyang / Celebration
caption_attribution_description: English: A street lined with colorful advertisement-banners during the Dinagyang Festival in Iloilo City, Philippines. Tagalog: Isang kalsadang nakarangya ng makukulay na mga banderang komersiyal noong Pista ng Dinagyang sa Lungsod ng Iloilo, Pilipinas
context_page_description: The Dinagyang Festival is a religious and cultural festival in Iloilo City, Philippines held on the 4th Sunday of January, or right after the Sinulog in Cebu and the Ati-Atihan Festival in Kalibo, Aklan. Dinagyang was also voted as the Best Tourism event three times in a row among any other festivals in the Philippines, it is also the most awarded festival in the country, because of its legacy, popularity and innovation. it receives an honor and regarded as World Class Festival and dubbed as the "Queen of all festivals" in the Philippines.
context_section_description: The Dinagyang Festival is divided into three major events held annually every fourth weekend of January: Ati Tribe Competition (held on a Sunday), Dagyang sa Calle Real (held on a Saturday prior to the main event the next day, the Ati Tribe competition) and the Miss Iloilo Dinagyang (which is held on the week of the main Dinagyang Festival highlights).
  As an added attraction to the Ati Tribe competition, the Kasadyahan Cultural competition was added in the festival in the 1980s to showcase the talents of the students as well as the rich cultural heritage of the province of Iloilo. In the first few years of this event, schools from various towns and cities in the province participates in this competition but in recent times, the cultural competition confined only in the province became a regional scope accepting entries from other provinces of the region showcasing the best of Western Visayas cultural and historical heritage.
  The main part of the festival which is the Ati Tribe competition consists of a number of "warrior" dancers (who hold a shield in one hand and a spear in another) in a tribe (locally called "tribu") dancing in a choreographed formation and patterns as well as chanting to the sound of loud drum beats and improvised percussion instruments innovated by the respective tribes. In the early years, a number of tribes where created, founded and organized by some of the barangay or communities around the city but through the years and as the Dinagyang evolves and the competition becomes competitive gaining worldwide fame and attention, schools are starting to create and organize tribes introducing dynamic new dance patterns, formations and choreography soliciting sponsors from private companies for expenses and cost of participating in the competition. No actual Ati are involved nor do they benefit in any way from this event.  There are a number of requirements, including that the performers must paint their skin black and indigenous and other kinds of materials can be used for the costumes.  All dances are performed to drum music.  Many tribes are organized by the local high schools and in recent times some tribes came from as far as Batanes in Luzon and Cotabato in Mindanao. The tribes receive a subsidiary from the Dinagyang Foundation Inc. and the city government of Iloilo  and recruit private sponsors, with the best tribes receiving the most. The current Ati population of Iloilo is not involved with any of the tribes nor are they involved in the festival in any  other way although recently the original Atis from the hinterlands of Panay specifically from the mountains of Barotac Nuevo and Anilao came to participate non-competitively for recognition and giving them importance as being the characters symbolically portrayed in the festival.
caption: A street in Iloilo City generously decorated with banners (2009)
exif: {"Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D60", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Ver.1.01", "Image DateTime": "2009:01:24 19:51:37", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "216", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "300", "Thumbnail YResolution": "300", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "26012", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "9127", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/160", "EXIF FNumber": "63/10", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Unidentified", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2009:01:24 19:51:37", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2009:01:24 19:51:37", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "0", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "5", "EXIF SubSecTime": "60", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "60", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "60", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3872", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2592", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "25874", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[0, 2, 0, 2, 1, 2, 0, 1]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "7", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}