Ibalong Festival

The Ibalong is a fragment of a Bicol epic recorded in the nineteenth century, telling of the heroes Baltog, Handyong and Bantong who cleared the land of monsters - wild boars, giant serpents, the one-eyed Rabot - and made it fit to settle. Legazpi built a festival around it in the 1990s: street dancers in masks and costume as the creatures and heroes, performing the story in choreographed sequences along the main roads, with a parade, competitions between contingents from the city's barangays and schools, and the usual apparatus of food stalls and concerts. It is a modern civic festival rather than an old religious one, which is worth knowing - the Philippines has many of both, and Ibalong belongs firmly to the invented-tradition category, made to give Legazpi a cultural event of its own. The masks and the choreography are genuinely good, and Mayon stands over the whole thing when the cloud lifts.

What you actually see

• The masked creatures - monsters of the epic in street costume.
• The hero contingents - Baltog, Handyong and Bantong danced out.
• The street competition - barangay and school troupes performing.
• The Mayon backdrop - the volcano over the city, weather allowing.

When to go

August, with the main street-dancing days usually mid-month - confirm dates with the city, as they shift year to year.

Honest expectations

It is a modern festival created for the city, not an inherited tradition. Streets close and Legazpi's traffic is difficult. Accommodation fills; book ahead.

Nearby

The Cagsawa ruins, Daraga church and Lignon Hill are all minutes from Legazpi.