DAVAO City Mayor Sara Duterte said this year's Kadayawan Festival on August 20-22 would have no theme.
Duterte said she would rather have the festival focus on the city's 10 indigenous tribes.
"Kung ngano walay theme dili man siya required nga kinahanglan naay theme ang Kadayawan. But as usual ang atoang reason for celebration is gina-highlight nato ang atoang tribu (Why we have no theme this year is also because it's not required to have a theme for the Kadayawan. But the main reason why we want to celebrate this is to highlight our 10 tribes)" Duterte said.
"The festival would be to showcase their (tribes) culture, their plight, their problems, and their joys, everything about our 10 tribes," she added in the vernacular.
Meanwhile, City Tourism Officer Bong Aportadera said: "This is in relation to the City Tourism's thrust to project the city as having a very high and diversified culture."
Aportadera said the main events that would remain during the celebration would be the Hiyas sa Kadayawan, a pageant participated by female representatives of each tribe; Indak Indak sa Kadalanan, a street dancing parade either for competition or participation; and Pamulak, a floral float parade.
Other activities dubbed as 'sustaining events' are the agro-trade fair at SM City Davao, trade fair at the City Council, park performances of the 10 tribes, among others, Aportadera said.
P5-M budget
Another big change in the festivity is its budget.
Aportadera said compared to the Kadayawan Festival's P14 to 15 million budget proposal last 2008 and 2009, this year's budget is only pegged at P5 million.
"This year we want to keep it really low because we want the private sector to be more active and mu-coincide sa Kadayawan celebration," Aportadera said.
Duterte said out of the P5 million, P700,000 will come from the City Government and the rest would be augmented through donations and sponsorships from the private sector.
Duterte said the decision to slash the Kadayawan Festival's budget have been decided last year.
Performance venue
Aportadera said the executive committee (Execom) for the festival chaired by City Administrator Zuleika Lopez, have decided to change the venue for the performances.
Instead of holding the main stage and performing area at the Rizal Park along San Pedro St. near the City Hall and City Council, this year it will be moved to the People's Park.
Aportadera said the People's Park would be more convenient, especially to the performers from tribes and participating schools among others.
Security coordination
Aportadera said the Kadayawan execom will be working in close coordination with the Task Force Davao and the Davao City Police Office following the change of the main venue for the festivity.
A rerouting for the parades is also expected following the change.
"When the performances were held at the Rizal Park there would be as much as 17,000 people there at a time the whole day of the celebration. Following the changes we will also make sure that there is order inside People's Park," Aportadera said.
"As much as possible we would want that there are bleachers for the audience and the media, we will give them priority over hobbyists because we are focusing on the output. The media would stay immediate to the stage and would be given proper identification," he added. (Jade C. Zaldivar)