Ibagiw festival showcases Baguio’s evolving creative scene

BAGUIO CITY—Artists and craftsmen in this city opened the 2026 annual Ibagiw Creative Festival on Friday to showcase Baguio’s evolving art scene, on the run-up to its 10th anniversary in 2027 as the country’s pioneer “Creative City.”

The city was declared a Creative City in 2017 for folk arts and crafts by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco), joining over 400 cities that make up the Creative Cities Network where creative industries have helped drive their respective economies.

READ: Baguio promotes recycled materials in Ibag-iw, Christmas festivities

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The Ibagiw Creative Festival was institutionalized in 2019 and has featured performances and exhibitions across key Baguio spots which people can tour by participating in a “creative crawl.”

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This year’s activities tie into Baguio’s policy shift to a circular economy and will exhibit upcycled crafts and art at the Baguio Convention and Cultural Center as well as venues like Venus ParkView Hotel and the Wright Park Hotel.

Operating under the theme “Rikus,” which is Ilocano for “moving in circles,” the festival upholds the idea that Baguio’s indigenous community and old timers have long sustained a lifestyle of recycling materials.

For instance, students from three campuses sculpted warriors, elementals and other mythical images using cardboard for the exhibit “ReKusikos” at the convention center. One image was of a Benguet mummy but it reportedly triggered nightmares so the artists conducted an “atang” (offering to the spirits) before the exhibition opened on Friday, said Ibagiw exhibits curator Joel Arthur Tibaldo, a retired newsman and government employee.

The festival’s opening gala was scheduled to feature a musical performance outlining Baguio’s zero-waste initiatives.

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A Filipino Komiks workshop at the Baguio Library today, an art tour through the newly opened Baguio Arboretum beginning Nov. 21 and the annual Mandëko Kito artisan bazaar, also this month, are among the programs that would draw visitors.

Convergence

Delegates from the country’s other Creative Cities also arrived for talks to form a “convergence” of Filipino Creative Cities, said Baguio tourism supervising officer Aloysius Mapalo.

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Shortly after Baguio’s designation, Unesco declared Cebu City a Creative City for Design in 2019; Iloilo City a Creative City for Gastronomy in 2023; Quezon City a Creative City for Film in 2025; and Dumaguete City a Creative City for Literature also in 2025.

But the key task of drawing together every individual artists operating in the city appears to remain a struggle for the Baguio Creative Council which oversees all Creative City output.  

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A new official Creatives Online Registry that was put up recently drew only over a hundred craftsmen who signed up to access city support services.