Five Philippine Festivals to Plan a 2027 Trip Around
Five of the Philippines’ best-known festivals can fill one year of travel. Three fall in January and honor the Santo Niño: Sinulog in Cebu and Ati-Atihan in Kalibo on January 17, then Dinagyang in Iloilo on January 24. Kadayawan in Davao comes in August, and MassKara in Bacolod follows in October. Here is where each one is and what you will see.
Kalibo has the same Sunday, plus a short trip to Boracay
Ati-Atihan peaks in Kalibo, Aklan, on the third Sunday of January, which is January 17 in 2027. Locals call it “The Mother of All Festivals.” Tribes dance the sadsad through the streets in soot and costume to honor the Santo Niño. One travel guide notes that Kalibo had not yet published its 2027 activity schedule. The 2025 edition ran January 10 to 19, so activities start well before the main day. Kalibo sits about an hour and a half from Caticlan, where boats leave for Boracay.
The two main days fall on January 17, 2027, so a trip has to pick one city. Dinagyang a week later makes a second January weekend possible.
Davao spends August saying thanks
Kadayawan is Davao City’s thanksgiving festival for nature’s gifts and the harvest. It highlights the city’s 11 ethnolinguistic tribes. In 1970, then-mayor Elias B. Lopez encouraged the tribes to show their thanksgiving rituals. The festival has carried the Kadayawan name since 1988.
Indak-Indak sa Kadayawan, the street dance competition, is one of its main events. An estimated 120,000 people watched the 2026 grand showdown on Davao’s Coastal Road, which the city government called the largest crowd in Kadayawan history. The 2026 festival officially ran August 7 to 31. Kadayawan was historically held in the third week of August, but recent editions run for most of the month.
Cebu opens the year on January 17
Sinulog is Cebu City’s cultural and religious festival in honor of the Santo Niño. Its Grand Parade falls on Sunday, January 17, 2027, and the Cebu City government has organized the festival since 1980. About 40 contingents joined the 2026 edition, and 37 competed. Crowds reached an estimated 5.2 million, up from about 5 million in 2025.
The 2027 theme is “One Beat. One Dance. One Vision.” The festival opens with a salvo on Thursday, January 7, and a solemn procession is set for Saturday, January 16, before the parade steps off from the Cebu City Sports Center. Organizers are also planning an on-the-spot painting contest at Fort San Pedro on Sinulog Day.
Iloilo gives you a second January weekend
Dinagyang is held on the fourth Sunday of January, which is January 24, 2027. It began in the late 1960s, inspired by Ati-Atihan. The 2027 lineup has nine competing tribes, one more than in 2026, plus a non-competing guest tribe from Antique. Judging areas go from three to five, which organizers say will handle the larger crowds they expect. The foundation behind the festival said in January 2026 that the competition would go back to the old Calle Real route in the City Proper.
Bacolod’s festival of smiles started in a bad year
MassKara began in 1980 in Bacolod, months after an inter-island ferry sank and while sugar prices were at an all-time low. The city asked local groups to organize a “festival of smiles” to lift residents’ spirits. The name combines “mass,” for a multitude, with the Spanish “cara,” for face, and it puns on the Filipino word for mask.
Street dance competitions are a highlight, and Electric MassKara is a parade of lit-up floats and dancers along the Lacson Strip. The 2026 festival was scheduled for October 1 to 18, with main events from October 9 to 18. Highlights fall on the third Sunday of October under a Bacolod city ordinance amended in 2025, which makes the 2027 date October 17. An older national law set the fourth Sunday, and some travel roundups still say so.
