The Tumandok Festival 2024 takes to center stage the cultural gems of Iloilo for this year’s Tourism Month celebration September 26 to 30, 2024 at the event center of SM City Iloilo.
The five-day event will showcase Iloilo’s gastronomy, agri-tourism, and indigenous materials through a fair, exhibitions, contests, and fashion show.
The event will open with NAMIT! on September 26 (Thursday) at 3:30 PM. NAMIT (Hiligaynon word for delicious) will center on gastronomy through an inter-municipality cooking contest. It will show heirloom and contemporary cuisines using locally grown ingredients, unique food
preparations, cooking methods from the different towns of Iloilo underscoring the cultural and nutritional significance of Ilonggo food.
Another contest is the inter-municipality “On-the-Spot Bayong Painting Contest” on September 30 (Monday) at 2:30 PM, which focuses on the mainstreaming of environmentally sustainable practices. The event aims to promote the use of handwoven shopping bags made from organic
materials like buri, pandan, and abaca that are locally produced by people’s organizations and cooperatives. The activity likewise intends to bolster public awareness of provincial ordinance signed by Gov. Arthur Defensor Jr. banning single-use plastic and styrofoam food containers and recommending the use of native baskets and other biodegradable and recyclable materials.
The main component of the festival is the local products fair, “Bugana” (abundant), and “AgriByahe,” a specialized rural and farm tourism exhibition designed as a platform for the development of rural tourism products through meeting and matching between agripreneurs and tour operators, conversations and dialogue, relationship and partnership building, and networking.
Agri-Byahe will showcase various popular and attractive farm destinations of Iloilo Province, raise awareness of services offered and value for money, learn opportunities for unique experiences and value propositions, and provide guides and options for local and domestic travelers to enjoy rest and recreation and respite from busy urban life.
A subset event of the Tumandok Festival is the three-day “Indigenous Fiber Fashion Fair,” a fashion show from September 27 to 29, which will showcase hand-loom fabrics created by Iloilo’s weaving communities and translated into contemporary designs by emerging and known
icons of Ilonggo fashion.
The first day will feature the creations of John Patrick Tajo, Jeraldine Nofre, Donato Peniero, Wendy Tanaleon, Kim Ivan Delgra and Jerico Labata, students of BS Fashion and Design Merchandising of ISAT-University. They will be joined by revered names in the fashion industry,
Otet Patrimonio and Jeff Ticao.
The second day will show the collections of sought-after designers, Jun-g Candelario and John Montinola.
The finale is the showcase of “Lin-ay sang Iloilo” candidates which will be capped by the official sashing ceremony organized by the Association of Iloilo Tourism Officers (AITO).
This year’s Tumandok Festival is extra special for it celebrates 20 years as a cultural event. It was started in 2004 organized by the Iloilo Provincial Culture, Arts, History, and Tourism Office which developed into a tradition highlighting the commemoration of the Tourism Month every September.
Since then the Tumandok Festival has evolved with new innovations, creative programming, and solutions-based activities that align with the Iloilo Provincial Government’s agenda of meeting the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.
The Tourism Month Celebration underscores the role that tourism plays as a driver of economic growth resulting in new businesses, stronger micro to small and medium enterprises, jobs creation and workers security, inclusion, and improved quality of life among Ilonggos.
