Palu-palo Festival of Basco

August 4-6 Palo-Palo Festival A cultural celebration featuring the natural beauty and varied culture of Batanes, the country’s most secluded province in the north.

The Basco Town Fiesta is supposed to be held on August 08, 2008, Friday but due to heavy downpour it was postponed on Sunday August 10, 2008. Palu-palo festival was featured on the town fiesta. This is a cultural presentation of the municipality of Basco, Batanes, showcasing their ethnic group’’s rugged yet storied existence. Palu-palo means sticks or arnis that were used by the native Ivatans to fight the forces of the colonizers such as Spaniards and the Dutch. The natives wear the traditional suit made of indigenous materials from the bark of trees which were flattened.

This year’s celebration was a simple one. A group of young volunteers organized the fiesta just to carry on with the tradition. This has not given much attention nowadays since each village conducts its own fiesta.