Higalaay Festival 2017

Cagayan de Oro celebrates its annual fiesta on August 28, 2017, which is the feast day of Saint Augustine. The fiesta which is also called Higalaay Festival is a month-long celebration which features core events such as garden show, fashion summit, cowboy festival, Kahimunan Fair, marathon, street dance, fireworks display, street procession and fluvial parade. The activities culminate on August 28 on which families serve sumptuous foods, drinks to relatives, friends and other people who may visit their homes.

Although celebrating a fiesta is a Roman Catholic practice, it has become an accepted holiday for most of Kagay-anons so that it is embedded in their culture and traditions. For most of them, a year is not complete without celebrating the fiesta.

A means of merry making, the fiesta is also an instrument to showcase the city as a prime tourist and investment destination not only in Mindanao but also in the Philippines. Despite the armed conflict in the neighboring city of Marawi and the President's declaration of martial law, the Kagay-anons' enthusiasm to celebrate the fiesta in 2017 still remains unaffected. Happy Fiesta! Viva Senor San Agustin!

Higalaay Festival 2016 (Cagayan de Oro Fiesta)

Cagayan de Oro City celebrates one of its most joyous occasions of the year, the feast day of Saint Augustine, the patron saint of the city. Locals simply call it the fiesta. Relative to the celebration, the city government launched the HIgalaay Festival 2016. The Higalaay or friendship in the local dialect is a series of almost a month-long core events that were conducted by the city and other groups or organization that culminated on August 28, 2016, the day of the fiesta. The events included Mindanao fashion summit, city-wide sale from the city’s big malls, kumbira, garden show and agri fair, coronation night of Miss CDO, marathon, carnival parade, cowboy show, Kahimunan regional trade fair, religious and fluvial processions, parade of floats and icons and bisperas fireworks displays and pyro musical festival.   

                                                                                         

Celebrating fiesta is a tradition of most Kagayanons. It is a time of reunion of members of families, a time when families treat relatives, friends and guests with sumptuous foods and drinks. The fiesta has been a traditionally religious event of the Roman Catholics who composed the city’s majority population. But through the years it has taken in some elements of secular cultural practices so that it has become an all inclusive occasion. Its events can be enjoyed and participated in by anyone regardless of his religious affiliation. For the city government and its people, the fiesta is also an instrument to showcase the city as one of the premiere tourist and investment destinations not only in Mindanao but also in the Philippines. Viva Señor San Agustin! Happy Fiesta!

Lechon, a favorite food for the fiesta

The city's Saint Augustine Cathedral at dawn

Miss Cagayan de Oro 2016