Held On August 15 to 17th, The Kadayawan Festival is among the most colourful festivals in Davao, Philippines, featuring a wide range of cultural presentations and backgrounds especially because of its ethnic origins.
So I made my way there too on the 15th – from Roxas City to Iloilo to Davao, and it was disappointing and very poorly organised. Why? Let me explain. First was the crowd control of the event and the overall showcase of it. We didn’t see a street festival but more of a competition between schools as they got all different schools in the region to dress up with the colours of tribes and it’s culture only to have them compete against each other for the prize money.
There were no street parades from the schools, rather what I saw was them walking along the street just to get to the front stage, where the judges sat in the shade. And I didn’t even see any ethnic tribe communities. How it that a tribal festival? Shady.
Next was the organisers and the media team, they were hilarious! Every 5 mins you get to hear who were the sponsors. If you didn’t catch it the first 50 times, not to worry (indian head shake) as they will announce it again and again and again. “Thank you to our sponsor of this, sponsor from there, napkin sponsors, flag sponsors, telco sponsors, umbrella sponsors… they had it all!
I felt like all the sponsor (people with the money) were so hard-up with branding and wanted to shove their brand names down my throat and ears.
The street banners, oh man they were awesome, everywhere I pointed my camera I saw a brand name, street flags, posters, walk ways, stages, I think if they had toilets there it would have their brand too (this toilet bowl was sponsored by Bla Bla).
My eyes got raped over and over again with brand names. And no banners or flags of the festival itself. Sad. Sorry Kadayawan, it wasn’t about you.
Then came the photographers, I pity these people, professionals and non-professionals, they came from all over to capture the moments of the festivals (like me, as google said its awesome), to capture the amazing scenes of all the children coming together in uniform with awesome cultural performances. Some even dancing bare footed in the hot blazing sun, but too bad!
We got barred from getting into the action scenes, we were asked to stand aside with the crowd and best of all, blocked by the officials, at the main stage where the handsome judges sat in the shade made for 20 people, the photographers were tied up behind by the rope!
A photographer and a videographer is the most important tool for organisers to have, (common basic social media ethics for you), and even someone with a camera phone can get you so much coverage with one amazing photo via social media today! If you were born before the social media era, then you should not organise events for the youth and public today.
Is this what cultural events have come down to today? Its not only here, everywhere in Asia even Malaysia, we Asians love logos, its all about brands and companies (money and status). Every poster you see today will have 60 logos on it. (be the photographer, be the organiser, be the table person, be the lights person, be the napkin person, be the person holding the pole to the lights) Why are you so hard up for that?
We even have deals nowadays, “Hey do it for free and I’ll put your logo on my poster.” Seriously, is that what it’s all about?? And the main photo will disappear behind the fantastic different shape of badly designed logos.
Here is some advise for you, its free. Companies and corporations who are brand hungry wolfs. Think about this, what is the legacy that you, the CEO’s and bosses, are leaving for your next generation? What will your children learn from this? That if they want to be successful, join a big companies and paste brand poster around town to make more money and brainwash the people with logos?
What will they learn about culture and the people? What will you leave behind about your culture? You with all the money uses your brands and commercial value just to put yourself out there where ever you can, just cause you gave this thing you call money? Is this what you CEOs want to teach the next generation? Open your hearts and see.
There is so many ways to put yourself out there in a subtle way. (look it up on google), and don’t use money for this reasons. It doesn’t help anyone but yourself. And why do we need to put children in competitions for prize money, why create this environment?. Every child puts in the same effort for an event/performance , they should all be celebrated, with dancers and street performances where the public can join along.
Not in front of a stage made for 20 old people and while their families and friends stand in hot blazing sun pushed to the side lines, squeezed in the corner so judges can have a better view. Not cool man!
Also shout out to, ‘The Marco Polo Hotel, Davao’, shame on you! You put two small stages right in front of the streets just for your guest to sit under the stage fit for like 20 people (half of it were empty), and you took all the space, while the public were squeezed to the side watching their children performing on the side. Your guest watched the performance like people watching a circus.
Overall I enjoyed the cultural contest aka so called festival and I’m so proud of the children and school teams that put their hearts and souls into the performances. It was an amazing scene when I got a chance to see or capture it (most of the time I sat near the stage after getting squeezed out). Big hugs to all the kids who had big smiles, colourful costumes, awesome dance steps and amazing cultural performances, well done!
To the organisers, think about the culture and youth. Think about the children. Not the money, companies and yourself. Think about your legacy. Don’t let is disappear. But if you need some advise and an organising committee member to guide you how to run a street festival, I’m available for free, yes free consultation. And you don’t even need to put my logo up anywhere.
P/s – This are the only images I felt up to the standard to publish, I was there for the 2 days and only got this many. The rest turn out to be rubbish.
All in with emotions and facial expressions. They take you into their performance. – Kadayawan 2014
Another scene of photographers squeezed behind the rope trying to capture moments. Some like me just put our cameras away as the feeling of seeing the moment was gone. – Davao
Kadayawan 2014 and it’s sponsors – Davao
