Mindanao to host Budayaw Festival

The island of Mindanao had been chosen to host the first ever Budayaw Festival of Culture and the Arts on Sept. 20-24 at a still undisclosed venue.

To be spearheaded by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), the Budayaw Festival will feature the culture, heritage, and artistry of the Brunei Darussalam-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East ASEAN

Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA).

The NCCA has collaborated with the Mindanao Development Authority and the Department of Tourism (DOT) to organize the Budayaw festival in an effort to showcase the diversity of creative expressions of cultural masters and artists in the BIMPEAGA area.

The said festival also aims to raise awareness and foster appreciation on the landscapes, life-scapes, and aspirations of the people in the region.

Budayaw festival will feature different lectures, workshops, performances, shows, and exhibits which will foster understanding and solidarity among the multi-cultural populations of the BIMP-EAGA.

During the five-day festival, visitors can view iconic landscapes and cultural markers of the BIMP-Eaga in an interactive exhibit, which will be accompanied by lectures and fora to discuss the tensions of tradition and modernity embedded in each image.

“I think that this is the best time for us to host the Budayaw festival to show the world that Mindanao is safe and that our places here are in fact beautiful unlike how other people outside the country and even those in other parts of the Philippines may think,” said Adelina Suemith, the chief of the NCCA Program Monitoring and Evaluation Division.

Visitors will also experience the beauty of indigenous music with performance using native musical instrument in the region such as gongs, bamboo instruments, lutes, and plucked-string instruments.

Each of the region’s representative or performing group will also render their own contemporary theatre, dance, and music highlighting the threats and triumphs of communities on the road to peace, development, and resilience.

Suemith said the visiting guests will also be granted with special tours to Mindanao’s key tourist destinations for them to explore the localities.