Dinagyang is Iloilo City’s great January festival in honour of the Santo Nino, and its centrepiece is the Ati tribe competition. Tribes of dancers, their skin darkened and their costumes ablaze with colour and feathers, perform powerful, tightly drilled routines to thunderous drumbeats, chanting their devotion as they move through the judging areas and streets.
The photographs in this post are from Dinagyang in January 2010. They were taken in Iloilo City during the festival weekend, when competing tribes perform in full regalia and the downtown streets fill with spectators, devotees and photographers following the action from one performance area to the next.
For the festival’s cultural showcase on the same weekend, see our Dinagyang Festival Kasadyahan 2010 photographs.