The Mantawi Festival is a significant educational learning encounter. The dancers transform native delicacies, bibingka, budbud and tagaktak into dance movements, while broom and salt making are made alive as street dances. Some top corporations in the city will represent floats as they project a vibrant interplay of Mandaue as an economic hub today.

Using the music from the brass, dance and interpretation, the Mantawi Festival traverses centuries of culture to vividly recreate the history and heritage of Mandaue City today.

Mantawi Festival is made distinct from the rest of the festivals since this festivity focuses on cultural heritage tourism. It also showcases the area's pivotal role as a trade center and a seat of civilization.

Participants from all corners of the city will join in the celebration as they showcase its unique culture and interpret the city’s trading systems that became a tool for progress and prosperity.

Various contingents will overtake the entire city in a revelry of dancing and merry-making as the opening of the classy event kicks off every year in May.

Mantawi Festival

The name Mandaue is derived from the legend Mantawi, the vine that grew abundantly in the cove and its bay is called Mandawe. On April 7, 1521, high noon, Magellan first sighted a cove and its bay called Mandawe, upon entry to the island of Sugbo (Cebu) in search for food and supplies for his voyage back to Spain.

The Mantawi Festival is a rediscovery of the city’s rich cultural heritage. Its historical past affirms its present identity as a highly urbanized industrial center and a new tourism destination where arts and culture become tools for progress and prosperity.

The historical parade of street dancing and floats unfolds the history of Mandaue. Participants from neighboring cities, municipalities, companies, students, teachers and school officials from public and private schools and some government employees together perform historical presentations from its discovery in 1521 up to 2007. Mandaue City Government extends its celebration to other cities and municipalities in the region. Its street dancing contingent competition leads in presenting their festivals dancing the Mantawi beat.

Historical Background

Historically, Mandaue got its name from thick, clinging vines known as “mantawi” which were abundant in the early times, even before the coming of the Spanish conquestadores.

During these times, the city, with its eastern and southern boundaries facing the Mactan Strait, was already referred to as the “merchants’ paradise.”

Mandaue -- The City

The CITY OF MANDAUE is one of the cities in Region 7 or the Central Visayas.
Located right at the heart of the province of Cebu, the CITY OF MANDAUE is one of the two highly urbanized cities in the region, the other one being the City of Cebu. It is the industrial hub in the

region and hosts about 10,000 industrial and commercial locators, making it the “little rich city” in the country.

The city is strategically located and is ten minutes away from any of the major growth points within the inner core of the Metro Cebu Area. It links up mainland Cebu to Mactan Island through the 1st Mandaue-Mactan Bridge and the 2nd Mandaue-Mactan Bridge (Marcelo Fernan Bridge). From the Mactan Cebu International Airport, it is the door to the rest of the cities and municipalities of Cebu and the rest of the Visayas and Mindanao regions.

Founded in April 7, 1521, the CITY OF MANDAUE is now 484 years old. It became a Chartered City, though on June 21, 1969. It became a highly-urbanized city only in 1991.

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