Davao City – With COVID-19 shutting down the widely anticipated Kadayawan Festival, an online version of the festival dubbed as Kadayawan Digital Week 2020 officially started yesterday (Aug. 17) during the Monday City Hall convocation.
The digital version of the much loved festival which brings together indigenous peoples and Dabawenyo residents for a week of celebrations merriment and showcase cultural performances will be experienced on social media through the Kadayawan Facebook page.
Executive Order no. 25 issued by the City Government of Davao imposes a period of mourning and vigilance from April 17, 2020 to December 31, 2020 in an effort to stem the tide of the COVID pandemic. This has forced the cancellation of various events in Davao City.
“Kadayawan is synonymous with harmony, that struck me the most, in Kadayawan we celebrate to honor our 11 tribes in the city and by recognizing their diverse culture; the lumads and Moslem tribes its one way of telling the world that we can live in peace and harmony despite our diversity. And Kadayawan Digital Week is supposed to inspire everybody amidst what is happening in parts of the world,” Gatchi Gatchalian current festival director of the Kadayawan Digital Week said.
The online festival will feature archived materials of past Kadayawan Festivals such as The Best of Kadayawan viewing parties. Past festival directors and organizers will also be sharing their experiences and insights into organizing the festivities through zoom while a historical video will trace the roots of Kadayawan as a festival set in post-EDSA Davao named Apo Duwaling.
Despite the absence of the popular Indak-Indak sa Kadalanan (Street Dancing Competition), the organizers has created a Kadayawan Tiktok contest where contestants in their Kadayawan get-up and wearing face masks will dance to their Kadayawan music through the Tiktok application.
According to Gatchalian, the digital festival will be more interactive as they will crowdsource photos and memoirs of the past Kadayawans from people who have partook in the celebrations.
Among these include Hulagway sa Kadayawan which is a gallery of past festival photos and MMKX or Most Memorable Kadayawan Experience which features unforgettable festival experiences retold by those who participated in it. There is also the Kadayawan Music Video Making Competition where participants will produce festival-themed music videos.
The City Government will honor frontliners during the Pasasalamat held at the tailend of the Digital Week.
The online galleries and viewing parties alongside interactive contests reinforces the City’s advocacy on staying at home. That without leaving their homes, people can commemorate their festival.
Meanwhile, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte in her message for the event urged the people to look into the cultural roots and the challenges faced by the indigenous peoples.
“Ang pinaka una ang paghinumdom sa atong kagikan, and then number two ana is ang mga issue and challenges that our indigenous peoples are facing right now. Dili lang sa Covid-19, but daghan, for example, ang ilahang ancestral domain, access to education, access to opportunities, kanang mga ingon ana (Foremost is remembering our roots and number two is the issues and challenges that the indigenous peoples are facing not only with Covid-19 but a lot, for example, their ancestral domain, access to education, access to opportunities, things like that),” the Mayor said.
Meanwhile City Tourism Operations Officer Generose Tecson bared that the City Government did not have a budget for the festival as the expenses was borne by the private sector sponsors.
Tecson admitted that without Kadayawan this year, Davao City lost ₱ 6.15 billion in potential tourism revenues basing on what the city earned during the 2019 Kadayawan. Of which ₱ 1.92 billion was estimated tourism receipts and ₱ 4.23 billion economic benefit. The 2019 staging had more than 200,000 visitors flocking to Davao City.
She also said that the Kadayawan Digital Week will be a template for future celebrations of the city under the new normal. (Rudolph Ian Alama)
(Source: Philippine Information Agency)
