Every year in August, the 10 tribes of Davao City come together for a week of dancing, singing, and ridiculous costumes in a celebration of the harvest. The festival is called Kadayawan. I’d heard that our beloved durian plays a prominent roll in the parade floats, so Rob and I were in attendance at 7 AM Sunday morning when the parade started on Rizal Street.
The parade was dominated by marching child bands – large groups of elementary school students playing drums and oddly, glockenspiels. I remembered my mom telling me she played the glockenspiel in high school, but didn’t know that anyone played it anymore. Now we were surrounded by a waist-high ocean of metal xylophones.
I absolutely loved the fanciful and outlandish outfits sported by each group. The girls marched in front, wearing tall white boots and short skirts, sashaying in time with the music, while the boys and a few girls followed with their percussive instruments. My favorites were either the litttle ones with the pink capes and fuzzy purple drums, or these young ladies above.
After group after group of the elementary school bands passed, finally the floats started to whiz by. They went by pretty quickly. And most of them did sport a durian!
To see more pictures of Kadayawan and the Durian Floats, please see our Facebook Page.
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