Start booking flights and packing your bags for one of the most-awaited festivals in the country: the Señor Santo Niño Ati-Atihan Festival of Kalibo in Aklan Province. The Ati-Atihan is a total immersion in Philippine culture, heritage, and tradition. If you want a full-on festival experience like no other, this is THE festival to attend. Extend your holiday stay in the PH, make a Kalibo side trip to your Boracay visit this January, and experience the Philippines on a cultural high.
What is the Ati-Atihan all about?
The Ati-Atihan festival dates back to as early as the 13th Century and started as a celebration of peace between the indigenous Aeta people of Panay Island and the Malays from Borneo, who arrived at the island seeking a new place to live. It was a sign of respect and a welcome of sorts to celebrate a synergy between races. When the Spanish came in the 1500s, the colonizers integrated the veneration of the Santo Niño to temper any pagan references and roots.
Through the centuries, the Ati-Atihan has become a festival of gratitude for all the blessings received by the Atis and Aklanons and collective prayer for continued guidance, peace, and protection. Either way, historically, the festival is a unique representation of Philippine history, which denotes a merging of influences, a celebration of tradition, and an integration of peace.
Ati-Atihan dates and highlights
The Ati-Atihan of Kalibo is usually celebrated on the third weekend of January, the same month as similar celebrations on Boracay Island, Cebu (Sinulog), Iloilo (Dinagyang), and other neighboring Visayan towns and cities. (Watch for our stories about Sinulog and Dinagyang, coming soon!) While the main celebration in 2024 will be on the weekend of January 19 to 21, the Ati-Atihan is a month-long celebration in Kalibo, where they have art fairs, bazaars, competitions, races, variety shows, and blessings for visitors and locals alike.
When KUBO got to attend Ati-Atihan 2023, we found the “sadsad” or the festival parade to be the main highlight of the celebration. The “sadsad” is a day-long parade that trails more than 80 participating Ati-Atihan tribes and groups in Aklan through the main roads and alleyways of Kalibo for heartfelt street dancing. Historically, the tribes represent various barangays and indigenous groups in Aklan, but contemporary customs have changed and now, even barkadas, families, or various organizations can band together to form their own “sadsad” tribe.
Ati-Atihan salvo and 2024 schedule
Last October, Kalibo held the opening salvo weekend, which was set to drum up excitement for the upcoming Ati-Atihan festival and supposedly prepare the municipality for the celebrations of the upcoming year. The salvo was a celebration, and the townspeople gathered at Kalibo’s Pastrana Park for a fun show that drew in celebrities, local talents, and the fun-loving Aklanon community. There, they had previews of Ati-Atihan highlights, announced relevant information about the festival’s various events and competition criteria, and detailed the schedule for January.
If you’re penciling in a trip over, the following images detail the schedule for the upcoming Ati-Atihan festival this 2024:
Making the most of your Ati-Atihan experience
1. Make the Ati-Atihan a Boracay excursion. The municipality of Kalibo, Aklan is located just an hour and a half away from Caticlan, where you take the short boat ride to Boracay Island. As such, so many festival visitors make it an intentional side trip during their island escape. Buses and shuttles ply between Boracay/Caticlan and Kalibo regularly, but there are more trips during the festival season, so you have many transport options that can take you right to the heart of Kalibo. You can catch a bus or shuttle at the major ports and hubs in Caticlan town proper.
2. Decide on your festival duration. Some festival visitors make the Kalibo trip days before the main weekend to attend the pocket events leading up to the “sadsad.” If you’re planning to do the same, book a stay in a hostel or hotel near Pastrana Park or along the festival route. That ensures that you get a good spot to stop by various festival events in the coming days.
3. Be festival-ready and prepare for all kinds of surprises. While the Ati-Atihan is a community celebration, it has grown in popularity and prominence through the years. As such, it can get extremely busy with thousands upon thousands of locals and tourists flocking to Kalibo. Ditch the prissy mode and get ready to hobnob with the local Aklanons and your fellow festivalgoers, wear your walking shoes or sandals, and be ready for both humid-hot days or occasional January rain showers. Come ready with a fan, rain jacket, and tumbler of water.
4. Remain open-minded and respectful. The festival has both cultural and religious undertones, so it’s important to remain respectful of the customs and nuances of the celebration. It can get jarring for some, but it’ll be best to save your judgment and just immerse yourself in the rich facets of the festival. Seeing the Ati-Atihan (or any other Philippine festival, for that matter) as a culturally rich celebration allows you to appreciate Philippine heritage and roots in an immersive and more rooted way.
