Dinagyang Festival is one of the biggest and world-class festivals in the Philippines. It traces the history of devotion to the Holy Child Jesus popularly known to Filipino devotees as Sr. Sto. Nino. The festival also commemorates the arrival of the Malay settlers and the legendary barter of Panay Island from the natives called called Ati.
Dinagyang season in Iloilo City is on the first month of the year and highlighted with an Ati Tribe Competition every fourth Sunday of January. There is an official launching by mid-October of the previous year signaling the start of preparations especially for tribes to practice for their performances in January of the next year.
The participants show impressive choreography with colorful tribal costumes and striking props to present socio-cultural and religious tableaus depicting life in Panay before the Spanish colonization and the advent of Catholicism in the country.