It’s like attending all the festivals the country has to offer without leaving Manila.īy four in the afternoon, the floats started rolling down the street and the respective groups all went into their formations. This year the festival consists of 17 festival streetdances, 11 festival queens, and 12 festival floats. Now on its eight year, this summer event is always flocked by the local people, amassing huge crowds. The Aliwan Fiesta is organized yearly by the Manila Broadcasting Company and the Cultural Center of the Philippines, featuring and promoting the various colorful festivals around the country. The staging area was a colorful chaos as these masked and costumed lot danced and practiced for the upcoming showdown that afternoon. It was a well-represented event, from the Pakalog Festival of NCR, the Dinagyang of the Visayas, to the Zamboanga Hermosa Festival of the Mindanaos.

It was three in the afternoon and the sun was mercilessly scorching the whole of the metro, sandwiched between the Manila Bay and the SMX Convention Center at MOA were makeshift huts filled with the contingents for this year’s Aliwan Fiesta.

Screaming reds, cool blues, blinding yellows and every palette in between was seen last Saturday at the Mall of Asia grounds up to the streets of the Cultural Center of the Philippines.

Pasay city festivals