Higantes Festival 2026

Higantes is the festival of Angono, Rizal — the country's art capital — held around November 22-23 in honour of San Clemente, patron of fishermen. It is famous nationwide for its parade of towering papier-mache giants.

The higantes are 10-12-foot papier-mache figures with hollow bodies a dancer wears from inside. Tradition traces them to the Spanish era, when townsfolk caricatured their overbearing hacienda landlords — once limited to three giants, now numbering in the dozens.

The image of San Clemente is carried in a lively procession amid the basaan — a joyful dousing of participants with water — and a fluvial parade of decorated boats (parehador) along Laguna de Bay.

In Angono town proper on November 22-23, centred on the San Clemente Parish and the streets leading to the lakeshore. Easily reached as a day trip east of Metro Manila.