Festivals and fiestas offer a unique window to the Filipino's cultural landscape and an opportunity to savor the many celebratory flavors of its cultural diversity. Athough festivals and fiestas share a common definition, there are distinctions.

Fiestas are usually annual rites of celebrations with small town and rural flavors: streamers and indigenous arches, the loud and discordant marching bands, the procession honoring the patron saint, the feasting and bacchanalia. Unlike most other holidays that are family-oriented, the fiesta is community-oriented; one for which all stops are pulled. Despite late year's loan and expenses still unpaid and the coffers still empty, it is unthinkable not to lay out the welcome-mat come fiesta day. A pig, cow, or carabao is sold, to ensure that all the friends and neighbors may come and share in the merriment and festivity that last until the last morsel is eaten or the last jigger of liquor is quaffed.

Fiestas are usually smaller in scale, celebratiing a patron saint, a hero or historical event. A festival is a more recent evolvement, denoting bigness and urbanity, with more elements of organized commerce and a wider celebratory scope. Both offer opportunites to experience something singularly Filipino, events usually detailed with religiosity and folklore and abounding in that legendary Filipino hospitality.
 

MARCH
• Arya! Abra Festival
• Kaamulan Festival
• Penagbenga Festival
• Pilgrimage on a Caravan •

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APRIL
• Cutud Lenten Rites
• Moriones Festival *
• Turumba Festival *
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Arya! Abra Festival
Province of Abra
March
The Arya! Abra Festival is a a week-long celebration that coincides with the founding anniversary of the Province of Abra. Other acitivities include a horse race and the Tingguian Festiva among other celebrations. It is also an occasion to showcase 'Abrazzi", a concoction of basi made of sugarcane, honey and green mango juice. Cockfighting also features a "Karambola"– a cockfight pitting four or more cocks simultaneously and a survival of the fittest or luckiest.

Ati-Atihan
Kalibo, Aklan
3rd Weekend of January

A celebration honoring the Sto.Niño, a harvest thanksgiving, and a 13th-century friendship pact between the native aetas and the Malays. It can be considered the Mardi Gras of the Philippines: a weekend of uninhibited merriment, of endless parades and processions of grouped revelers, sooted and intricately costumed, marching an endless loop of streets, dancing to the continuous, rhythmic and hypnotic beating of drums, while countless Sto. Niño statues are carried by or hoisted over the parading crowds or pushed through small make-do floats. It is a non-stop hyperkinetic street celebration, from morning until dusk, gradually building to a maddening merging of dance, drumbeats and bacchanalia.
Also see: Philippines for the Intrepid Traveler

Bayluhay Festival
San Joaquin, Iloilo
3rd Saturday of January
A week-long festival that celebrates the towns cultural and historical roots – its Aeta roots and Malay and Spanish influences exhibited in dances and rituals. It is capped by the "Pasungay" event – a festival of bulls that originated on the rural hillsides of San Joaquin where herdsmen would pit their pulls with their neighbor's. Now, bulls, carabaos and stallions from the town and neighboring barangays are pitted against each other.

Black Nazarene
Quiapo, Manila
January 9

The feast of the Black Nazarene is a religious festival celebrating the suffering and death of Christ. After mass, a life-sized Black Nazarene carrying the cross on its shoulder is paraded around the Quiapo area by thousands of male devotees, struggling through throngs of people who attempt to come close enough to touch the statue believing that such will bring about miraculous effects. Also see: (Quiapo) (Nazarene Festival / 2011)

Bonok-bonok Festival
Surigao City
September 9
Surigao celebrates its heritage with a loud and rowdy street dancing parade.

Carabao Festival
San Isidro, Nueva Ecija; Pulilan, Bulacan; Angono, Rizal
May 15
The feast day of San Isidro Labrador, the patron saint of all farmers, is celebrated with the carabao featured as the main attraction in the days activities. Each farmer dresses his carabao, then taken to the church courtyard for the priest's blessing, then paraded around town. A festival highlight is the carabao race in the afternoon.  After crossing the finish line, they kneel to await the priest's blessing.

Catandungan Festival
Virac, Catanduanes
October
A celebration of the province's anniversary and a tribute to its founders, featuring street dancing, Pantomina, beauty pageants. and more.

Chinese New Year
Chinatowns
Late January or early February
The Chinese New Year is observed from dates within late January to early February. Chinatown in Manila is the main site of this celebration, profuse with famous Chinese lion dances, street performances, fireworks and typical feasting. Tikoy, a Chinese delicacy, is given out galore during this celebration.

Cutud Lenten Rites
San Fernando, Pampanga
April
A celebration of Lenten rituals which starts in the morning of Good Friday. The villagers of San Pedro, Cutud, engage in the acts of self-flagellation that induces cuts in the backs, arms, and legs and then struck with burillo whips. The Lenten event climaxes midday with the penitents being nailed to their waiting crosses.

Dia de Zamboanga Festival
Zamboanga City
February 26
February 26, 1937 was the date when Zamboanga wea declared a charter city under the Commonwealth Government. The celebration also commemorates the religious harmony between the Christians and the Muslims in Zamboanga City.

Dinagyang
Iloilo City
4th Sunday ofJanuary
"Dinayang" is the Ilonggos' weekend of madcap and zany celebration. It is religio-cultural festival honoring the Sto. Niño and the arrival of the Malay settlers on Panay and the selling of the island to them by the Atis. An uninhibited festival of natives painted in black and dressed in "Ati" warrior costumes replete with weapons and shields swaying to the pounding rhythm of drums. See also: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinagyang)

Flores de Mayo
Month of May
Flores de Mayo is a month long flower festival celebration in honor of the Virgin Mary. In the rural areas, flower offerings are made daily in churches and tuklongs (village chapels) in the barrios. In the early evenings, the villagers, young and old, congregtate for a ritual of nightly prayers, litanies, songs and flower offerings. It culminates at the end of the month with the Santacruzan festival – a day long celebration of parades and processions. The traditional procession features statues of the Virgin Mary in colorful floral decorations parading with the Reina Elena and a retinue of other costumed participants. It is a religious celebration of disparate contrasts – from the big-city presentations accented with the pageantry of flowered floats, replete with celebrity participants contrasting with the countless barangay processions featuring their pretty maidens and little princesses in their colorful gowns, make-do tricycled floats and flowered bamboo arches.

Grand Cordillera Festival
Baguio City
November
An annual November festival celebration that brings together the region's ancient tribal traditional dances, music, arts and crafts

Helubong Festival
Lake Sebu, South Cotobato
Second week of November
A colorful and traditional festival celebrated by two ethnic groups: T'boli and B'laan.

Ibalong Festival
Albay
October 6 - 12
A colorful celebration of Albay's historic evolution. A masked and costumed clamorous merrymaking celebrating the classic battles in the history of Bicol and the heroic stories of their mythical heroes: Handiong, Bartlog and Oryol.
http://www.philippinefiestas.com/ibalong-festival-of-albay-legaspi-to-immitate-the-appearances-of-the-heores-and-the-villains/

International Bamboo Organ Festival
February  15 to 25
Las Piñas Church
The Las Piñas bamboo organ is the only one of its kind in the world. The celebration features 10 days of cultural performances by both local and international artists at the old Las Piñas church that houses the bamboo organ.

Kaamulan
Malaybalay, Bukidnon
Late February to Early March
This ethnic-cultural festival is celebrated from late February to early March, coinciding with the foundation of Bukidnon as a province. The festival celebrates the cultures and traditions of its seven ethnic tribal groups – Bukidnon, Higaonon, Talaandig, Manobo, Matigsalug, Tigwahanon and Umayamnon.
(More: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaamulan_Festival)

Kadayawan sa Dabaw Festival
Davao City
3rd Week of August
This colorful festival honors Davao's artistic, cultural and historial heritage. It is the Davaoeños thanksgiving celebration for a bountiful harvest of fruits, flowers, vegetables, rice and corn grains. Kadayawan derives from the aboriginal Dabawnon word "Madayaw" which means "anything that is good" and from the Bagobo word "dayaw" meaning good. The 5-day festival starting on the third Wednesday of August originated from the Bagobo tribal practice of celebrating a bountiful harvest, rife with dances, horse fights, music and rituals. The festival highlights with a parade of floral floats, ethnic street dancing to the beat of wooden drums, the waling-waling contests and exhibits. It also showcases its three important symbols: Mt Apo, the waling-waling flower, and the Durian fruit.
(http://www.kadayawan.com/?page=about)
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kadayawan_Festival)
http://www.philippinecountry.com/philippine_festivals/kadayawan_sa_dabaw.html

Kagayhaan Festival
Cagayan de Oro
August 28
A festival celebrating in Mardi Gras fashion the feast of its patron saint, St. Augustine.

Kahimonan Abayan Festival
Butuan City
July
This festival is held in Butuan City honoring Sta Ana or St. Anne who known to guide the towns people against the man-eating crocodiles in the Agusan River. It features a fluvial parade of boats with the natives in prayer and thanksgiving.

Kansilay Festival
Kansilay City, Negros Occidental
November 5-13
The festival celebrates a folktale of the brave and beautiful Princess Kansilay who offered her life for justice and freedom. It is a week-long city celebration that is high-lighted by the dance-drama of the town's folktale. The celebration jump-starts with the "El Cinco de Noviembre" festivity that commemorates the one-day bloodless revolution in Silay that led to the surrender of the Spanish guardia-civil. The celebrations also feature dance-and-drama that is inspired by the Kansilay, a forest tree with purplish pink flowers.
http://www.lutongbahay.com/index.cfm?pagename=focusregion&opn=0&focusID=21

Kinabayo Festival
Dapitan City
July 24
The annual festival of the City of Dapitan is a revelry that hightlights with an exotic and colorful pageant re-enacting the Spanish Moorish wars. It features the Battle of Covadonga where the Spanish forces under General Pelagio took their last stand against the Saracens, prevcailing through the miraculous apparitional intervention of St. James, the apostle.
(http://www.seasite.niu.edu/Tagalog/Cynthia/festivals/kinabayo.htm)

Lantern Festival
The Giant Lantern Festival
Ligligan Ng Parul
San Fernando, Pampanga
December
Some may argue the claim that the Lantern trade is undisputedly Kapampangan, or that it is the Christmas Capital of the Philippines – but it is in San Fernando that the Philippine parol evolved. Each lantern has a 75 KVA generator, enough to power an entire barrio, some are equipped with high-tech computerized gizmos. Each weigh about 1000 kg or more and a year-long effort of preparation and creation. The Giant Lantern Festival – an inter-barangay competition – is a dazzling exhibition of lanterns and lights, the colors and forms changing and moving to the festive rhytm of sounds and Christmas carols– a merging of dedicated community efforts of art, creativity, science and engineering. Indeed, a wonderful holiday festive destination.
(http://www.geocities.com/balen_net/lanterns.htm)
(http://www.seasite.niu.edu/Tagalog/Cynthia/festivals/giant_lanterns.htm)

Lanzones Festival
Camiguin
Third week of October
October celebrates Camiguin Island's major source of livelihood, the Lanzones. A street extravaganza of colorful street dancing in the streets of Mambajao as Camiguinons strut their stuff, in the costumes of the Mindanao tribes carrying and celebrating their favorite fruit.

Lubi-Lubi Festival
• Calubian, Leyte (August 15)
• Linamon, Lanao del Norte(January 15)
• Gingoog, Misamis Oriental (May 22)
• Glan, Sarangani (October 8)

Of the fifteen Philippine festivals that celebrate the coconut, four celebrate it with the same name: (1) Calubian, Leyte - Calubian means "the place where coconut grows, August 15. (2) Linamon, Lanao del Norte, January 23. (3) Gingoog, Misamis Oriental, every May 22, the feast of Sta. Rita, and (4) Glan, Sarangani, every Ocotober 8.

Maradjao Karadjao Festival
Surigao City
September 9
A day-long festival of street dancing celebrating Surigao's tribal cultures and honoring the city's patron saint, San Nicolas de Tolentino. It is also a day that asks the gods to bless the city with bountiful harvests and good health. The celebration's main feature is the "Bonok-Bonok." an ethnic Mamanua dance
http://www.etravelpilipinas.com/events_festivals/maradjao_karadjao.htm

MassKara Festival
Bacolod City
Third weekend of October
The "City of Smiles" most popular fiesta that features a brass band competition, mask-makiing contests, talents and beauty pageants and climaxes into a mardi-gras kind of parade where costumed and masked Bacoleños revelers dance to the Latin rhythms. The MassKara festival is not an ethno-religious celebration, but a festival that celebrates the Bacoleno, a celebration of pure fun and the art of a thousand of smiles.
(More: http://www.bacolodcity.gov.ph/bacolod_masskara_festival.htm)

Misa de Gallo
Simbang Gabi
December 16 - 24
Misa de gallo (midnight mass) is a nine-day series of pre-dawn masses starting on the 16th of December, marking the opening of the Christmas season in the Philippines. Churches are lit up in the early morning as the church grounds are filled with stalls selling christmas wares and some Philippine delicacies. (Also see: The Longest Christmas by Nita Umali Berthelsen)

Moriones Festival
Boac, Mogpog & Gasal, Marinduque
Holy Week

The towns of Boac, Mogpog and Gasan in the island province of Marinduque become the stages for this 200 year old religious folk festival celebrated during the Lenten season. Morion (mask or visor) is that part of the medieval Roman armor that covers the face. Moriones refers to the masked and costumed penitents who march around the town as barbaric Romans. The festival climaxes with the reenactment of the beheading of Longinus, the centurion who pierced the side of Jesus. As legend tells it, blind in one eye, his sight was restored when Christ's blood splattered on his eye.

A unique Holy Week experience, the Moriones festival is much more than the colorful Roman mask and costumes. It is a window into the religiosity of a culture exhibiting itself through a variety of traditional lenten rituals and presentations: the senaculo, passion readings, the reenactment of the Christ's cross-carrying walk to Calvary, penitents and flaggelants, the late afternoon candlelit processions of religious floats and the town faithful.  (THE place to stay in Boac: Tahanan sa Isok [Inn Isok] 042 332-1231) 

Mudpack Festival
Murcia, Negros Occidental
June 24
A modern-day conceptualized festivity that showcases Mambukl's natural wealth, it is also a symbolic festival that celebrates man's primitive roots when he was one with nature. Murcia's annual mud-moving spectacle featuring a street dancing parade with participants heavy with their mud-costumes, a mix of eco-messaged merrymaking.
http://www.etravelpilipinas.com/events_festivals/mudpack_festival.htm

Our Lady of Candles Festival
Jara, Iloilo
February 2
Rooted to the Candlemas Festival celebrated in Jerusalem since 400 AD, the religious pageantry celebrates the Blessed Virgin in the of a procession of lights and blessing of candles, with the Nuestra Señora de Candelaria followed by the fiesta queen and her escort. http://en.wikipilipinas.org/index.php?title=Our_Lady_of_the_Candles

Pagoda Festival
Bocaue, Bulacan
First Sunday of July
A fluvial parade called Pagoda sa Wawa, which commemorates the discovery of the miraculous cross floating on the Bocaue River 200 years ago. The river parade features a replica of the cross magnificently decorated and led by colorfully adorned barges and small boats. Hundreds of devotees accompany the pagoda in a river tradition of dousing. Others accompany the pagoda by swimming alongside. A festival river tragedy in 1993 has become part of the commemoration.
http://www.a1-philippine-travel-asia.com/bocaue-pagoda-festival.html

Pahiyas sa Quezon Festival
Sariaya, Lucban, Tayabas, Quezon
15 May

A thanksgiving feast celebrating San Isidro Labrador, the patron saint of local farmers in Lucban and Saryaya, Quezon and in Mindanao. During the celebration, homes are decorated with kiping (multi-colored paper-thin leaf-shaped rice kropeck) and harvest vegetables. 

 

Palo-Palo Festival
Batanes
August
A cultural festival celebrating the natural beauty and culture of Batanes, the Philippines' most secluded province in the north.

Pamulinawen Festival
Laoag City, Ilocos Norte
February
Although the merrymaking starts days before the February 11 feast day of its patron saint, Saint William the Hermit who through his intercession with the Lord has spared the town from calamaties and disasters. The festivities include a Miss Laoag City pageant, a carnival and a dance parade.
http://www.lutongbahay.com/index.cfm?pagename=focusregion&opn=0&focusID=28

Parada ng Lechon
Balayan, Batangas
June 24
The lechon could be considered the National Feasting Food and is a defining detail to any Filipino's fiesta table. This Balayan day celebrates the lechon with a parade of decorated succulent crispy golden-red roasted pigs. Coninciding with the Feast of St. John the Baptist, the lechon parade can be a "wet" event. After the parade, the lechons are consumed in a revelry of sharing and bacchanalia.

Peñafrancia Fluvial Festival
Naga City, Camarines Sur
3rd Saturday of September
The festival is celebrated in honor of the Lady of Peñafrancia. It is preceded by a nine-day novena, the last day falling on the 3rd Saturday of September and highlighted by a fluvial procession. On the first day, the statue of the Lady, borne on the shoulders of male devotees, is taken from its shrine to the Naga Cathedral. On the ninth day, the Virgin Mary is transferred back by barge from the cathedral to the Peñafrancia Church. There is a river procession of throngs of people in boats as devotees lining up the river banks shout: "Viva la Virgen!"
http://www.a1-philippine-travel-asia.com/penafrancia.html

Panagbenga
Baguio Flower Festival
Late February to Early March
The Flower Festival celebrates the flower season in the city of Pines. The festival name derives from the Igorot meaning “season of blossoming” or blooming. It is a month-long celebration with scattered events and exhibitions, culminating on a last weekend of street parades ablaze with flower motifs, costumes, tribal dances; and a parade of flower floats, with doses of celebrities for the squealing masa and the inevitable segment of the gaudy Gay. And during some parade gaps, time to try the sidewalk festival treat of "strawberry taho." (For more information: https://www.thepanagbengafestival.com )

Piat Sambali Festival
Cagayan
Last week of June
A festival of cultural shows and street dancing commemorating the Christianization of the Ytawes region of Cagayan.

Pilgrimage on a Caravan
La Union, Pangasinan
Lenten Month
A month-long celebration of Marian feasts of Our Lady of Manaog, Our Lady of Charity, Our Lady of the Fields and Lenten rituals.

Pintados-Kasadyaan Festival
Tacloban, Leyte
June 29
"Kasadyaan" is a Visayan word meaning "merriment." Leyte municipalities congregate in capital city of Tacloban for the merrymaking. The Pintados-Kasadyaan Festival is a month -long merrymaking that includes the Leyte Kasadyaan Festival of Festivals, the Pintados Festivial Ritual Dance and the Pagrayhak Grand Parade. The Pintados is a wild and wacky festival derived from the pre-Hispanic years, when the natives tattoed themselves in celebration of courage. The festival is a cultural revival where the body-painted locals become warriors-of-old dancing to the frenetic beat of drums.
http://www.philippinecountry.com/philippine_festivals/pintados_festival.html

Pinta Flores Festival
San Carlos City
November 5
The city in this sugar-producing island of Negros Occidental honors its patron saint, San Carlos Borromeo featuring a pageant of floral paginted bodies dancing as they wind through the streets. The festival is inspired by the tattoeed Negrenses of precolonial times. The thanksgiving festival also commemorates the historic "Al Cinco de Noviembre," the provincial holiday of Negros Occidental.
(http://www.visitnegros.com/pinta-flores-festival.html)

Pinyahan sa Daet
Daet, Camarines Norte
June 15-24
Daet's favorite fruit is celebrated in the Pineapple Festival (Pinyahan sa Daet) that features colorful street shows, exhibits, trade fairs, cultural dances and sports events.

Sagayan Festival
Tubod, Lanao del Norte
First week of July
A festival highlighted by women parading in their native costumes.

San Clemente / Higantes
FEAST OF SAN CLEMENTE
Angono, Rizal
November 23
The tradition dates back to Spanish times, which started with the natives creating larger-than-life caricatures of their Spanish landlords. Today, the festival is a participatory celebration of all 13 Angono barangays, highlighted by a wet-and-wild grand procession of "higantes" – gigantic ten-foot papier-mache puppets surrounded by a crowd of water- drenched revelers. It also features the parehadoras, groups of young girls from every barangay, colorfully costumed, wearing wooden slippers (bakya), each with a wooden boat paddle (sagwan), stomping as they march in unison to the sound of marching bands.
http://www.ivanhenares.com/2006/11/viva-san-clemente-higantes-of-angono.html
http://www.philippinecountry.com/philippine_festivals/higantes_festival.html

Sandugo Festival
Bohol
July
Sandugo derives from "isang dugo" or "One blood." The Sandugo festival, also known as the Blood Compact Commemoration, celebrates the blood-sealed peace treaty on the shores of Bohol that marked the beginning of Spanish colonization of the Philippines. It features colorfully costumed groups dancing to the beat of drums. A traditional Filipino carnival, a reenactment of the blood compact, a martial arts competition, and the Miss Bohol Sandugo Beauty Pageant are additional attractions that makes the event quite a worthwhile destination.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandugo_Festival

Sarakiki Hadang Festival
Calbayog City, Samar
September
It's a chicken fluggin' good time, dancers in chicken costumes celebrating their culture and history. Sarakiki derives from the legend of Ilahas and Mahusay and a dance invented by them patterned after the movement of a cock, in courtship or in a fight. In 2002, Hadang part, an all inclusive celebration - for a bountiful harvest, defeat of the enemy or a curing of the sick - was added to the festival. celebration. It's defining feature is the wild and wacky chicken dance.
http://www.world66.com/asia/southeastasia/philippines/samarisland/calbayog/festivals

Sayaw sa Obando
Obando Fertility Rites
Obando
May 17, 18, and 19
Celebrating the patron saint of the childless Santa Clara, the main feature of the festival, Sayaw sa Obando, is a dance by childless women, believing that in their participation, they will be blessed and their wish for motherhood fulfilled. In the same festival, two other saints are honored: San Pascual de Baylon, a shepherd who became a model of good virtues and the Lady of Salambao, deriving her name from an image of the Immaculate Conception found by the river by a fisherman using a salambao net.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obando_Fertility_Rites

Shariff Kabunsuan Festival
Cotabato City
December 15-19
The city's Moslem celebration celebrates the arrival of an Arab-Malay missionary from Malaysia who spread Islam to the region of Mindanao. The weeklong festivities include the Kuyog Street Dancing parade, the Guinakit, A banca race, the Alimango Festival, the Culinary Arts Competition of Muslim delicacies, the Kulintang Ensemble competition, and an acrobatic show among many others.
http://www.lakbaypilipinas.com/festivals/sharif_kabunsuan.html

Sinukwan Festival
San Fernando, Pampanga
Week in early December
A week-long festival of cultural activities and street-dancing in celebration of its mythological roots. Legend tells of the noble and gigantic Siku who ruled from his lush Mt. Arayat abode and the warring conflict with the taga-ilugs led by the beautiful queen Maria Makiling. Siku won the conflict and her surrender, from which the word "Sinukwan" derives – "someone to whome others submit."

Sinulog Festival
Cebu City
Third Week of January
Cebu City's fiesta of fiestas honors the Child Jesus, the Sto. Niño. It is a nine-day fiesta that features a solemn procession that celebrates the occasion of the transfer of the first Santo Niño in 1565 from a burned Zubu (Cebu) village to a shrine that later became the San Augustin church. The celebration also features the Dancing of the Sinulog, a prayer-dance, with its percular two-steps-forward-one-backward shuffle, performed at the church in front of the Sto. Niño. Pre-Spanish and pagan in origin, the dance is performed for many reasons: as a petition to Bathala to accept departed souls, for thanksgiving, for harvests, or any assortment of needs.
     Legend says that at the time the image of the Santo Niño was being presented by Magellan to Queen Juana, the natives natives started gesticulating and shuffling; thus, the origins of the Sinulog dance. It has evolved into a street pageant of dance, performed by hundreds of costumed performers and spectators who join the parade, shouting "Pit Senior! Viva Sto. Nino!" dancing and keeping rhythm to the beating of drums as they route through the streets with its colorfully decorated store facades.
http://www.sinulog.ph/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinulog

Sinulog de Tanjay Festival
Tanjay, Negros Oriental
July
A festival featuring the tradition of Sinulog, with towns people parading in their colorful native costumes. Horse fights and battle reenactment of the Filipino and Spanish conflicts are also featured in this week-long celebration.

Sumbali Festival
Bayombong, Nueva Viscaya
August
A week-long festival celebrating Sto. Domingo de Guzman, the patron saint of Bayombong. Sumbali is a war dance of the Negritoes during which the dancers are sooted black, wearing G-strings and wigs in an imitation of the Aetas.

Taong Putik Festival
Aliaga, Nueva Ecija
June 24
Locally called Pagsa-San Juan, Tiaong Putik Festival to outsiders, the religious celebration honors the town patron saint – St John the Baptist. The town folk transform themselves into mud people, donning coconut or banana leaves and vines, in the backdrop of water dousing revelry.

T'boli Tribal Festival
Lake Sebu, South Cotobato
Third week of September
Lemlunay (T'Boli Festival) is an annual celebration in Lake Cebu, South Cotabato. It is a thanksgiving festival and a celebration borne by the T'boli's belief in a golden age (Lemlunay) that is still to come through a communal effort. The celebration also features the convergence of the 6 major tribes of South Cotabato (T´boli, Ubo, Manobo, Kalagan, Maguindanao, Tasaday) together with representatives from the different tribes in Davao (Tirurays, Mandaya, Surigao tribes, Langilan, Bilaan, Bagog, Mansaka). Originally, a celebration honoring the feast day of Sta. Cruz, in the 70s it started to include that thanksgiving ritual of the T-boli. All together, a breathtaking and awe-inspiring festival.
http://www.seasite.niu.edu/Tagalog/Cynthia/festivals/lemlunay.htm

Tinagba Festival
Iriga City, Camarines Sur
February 11
The festival celebrates the tradition the ancient Bicolano first-harvest offering coinciding with the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. It features a caravan of decorated bull-and-carabao carts laden with freshly harvested farm products, a street Mardi-gras of costumed revelers that culminates at the Emerald Grotto at Calvary Hills.
http://www.iriga.gov.ph/ic/tinagba.asp

Turumba Festival
Pakil, Laguna
Before Holy Week
The Turumba festival derives from pre-Christian healing practices of Pakil priestesses, rife with folk religiosity and pagan ritual elements of animal sacrifices and trances. The priestesses healing abilities caught the ire and counterefforts of the Catholic friars and their eventual demise. The Turumba festival honors the Blessed Mother of Turumba with seven novenas that corresponds to the seven sorrows of the Blessed Mother. It is the longest celebrated festival in the country, lasting for seven months, starting the week before Holy Week and every 9th of the month for seven months.
http://www.lakbaypilipinas.com/turumba.html

Zamboanga La Hermosa Festival
Zamboanga City
October 1-12
October celebrates the City of Flowers' grand, annual Hermosa Festival. Also known as Fiesta Pilar, it honors the miraculous image of Our Lady of Pilar at the legendary Fort Pila. The vintas, those colorful native sea boats, once again make their appearance in a fast-paced, race-till-you-drop regatta. There's also a wealth of cultural and flower shows, art exhibits, and trade fairs. It's an all-out celebration of life - Chavacano style!
http://www.seasite.niu.edu/Tagalog/Cynthia/festivals/zamboanga_hermosa_festival.htm

Zambulawan Festival
Pagadian, Zamboanga del Sur
3rd Sunday of January
A festival that celebrates the Subanon tribe's rich cultural heritage with a street pageantry of costumes, rituals, music, singing, and dancing.