District 3 dancers emerge as

Katigbawan Fest ‘23 champs

CATIGBIAN, Bohol, June 17 (PIA) –The combined dancers and instrumentalists of Barangays Triple Union, Alegria and Bongbong danced their way to be hailed the Katigbawan Festival 2023 Streetdancing and showdown champions, romping away two more minor awards to be acclaimed new champions after Catigbian National High School gave way for its students to represent the barangays.

Comprising District 3 in the 8 clustered contingent competitions, they also went home with the Best in StreetDancing, Best in Showdown to be the winningest contingent two years after the festival went back to the streets, after the pandemic.

The festival’s streetdancing First Runner Up went to District 1 comprising of Poblacion, Poblacion Weste while the Second Runner Ups were from district 2 of Sinakayanan, Haguilanan, Ambuan.

Introduced 18 years ago, Katigbawan Festival celebrates tatigbi, tigbaw and kabawan which wen was coined also means progress using these three cultural heritage icons of the town.

Katigbi refers to a grass native to the town; tigbaw is Visayan for caves; and Kabawan refers to the traditional livestock auction market which the town is known of, far and wide.

While the Katigbawan Festival portrays the deep cultural and traditional heritage, beliefs and practices of the people, the festival was also envisioned to be a tool for the promotion of tourism, ecology and agriculture.

Profuse in the Katigbawan Festival step, true to its meaning, is the carabao trot and the back kick, which by far also differentiates the authentic festival from the copied dance steps from alien cultures.

In the recent years, the festival organizing committee also introduce the Festival Queen, one that could have been reflective of the nearby Sinulog.

This year, Erica Bitas of District 2 comprising pf Sinakayanan, Haguilanan and Ambuan took the award.

Meanwhile, as the Katigbawan also celebrates the string agricultural heritage of the town, a festival highlight was Katigbawan Farmers’ Day and Livestock Day which highlights a dressed-up carabao parade and agro-caromata float.

The best agri float went to Barangay Baang, and then 2nd Placer was Barangay Poblacion and third went to Barangay Poblacion Weste.

As the festival also brought out agricultural products from the barangays, these were displayed in agro-industrial fair booths which were also judged.

Best Agro Industrial Fair booth went to Barangay Candumayao, second was Barangay Sinakayanan and third was Barangay Bongbong.

In the dressed up Carabao parade, the Best in Carabao Costume went to Barangay Causwagan Norte, the second place went to Barangay Libertad Sur and the third placer was Barangay Bagtic. (PIABohol)

WERE BACK! Katigbawan Festival made it big this year after a test festival return last year and it did create Catigbian’s assertion as a force to reckon with in local streetdancing scenes. Catigbian however could not defend its Sandugo Streetdancing crown this year. (PIABohol/TJ Photography)

ROOTS FESTIVAL. From its agricultural roots, Katigbawan continue to come up with tradition-authentic presentations despite the huge costs initiatives like this entail. Creativity and hardwork however is what most festival organizers are not willing to get into. (PIABohol/TJ photography)

COCO LOCO. This carabao from Poblacion Weste gets the most fitting costume for a barangay that claims to be coconut producing as its agri float would show. (PIABohol/TJPhotography)