The third week of January in Kalibo, culminating on the third Sunday, is given over to the Ati-Atihan: a week-long street party of drums, costumes, and soot-blackened faces in honour of both the Santo Niño and the indigenous Ati people of Panay. It is one of the oldest festivals in the Philippines, the model for the better-known Sinulog in Cebu and Dinagyang in Iloilo, and is often called the country's Mardi Gras.
The big days are Saturday (the tribes' procession through town) and Sunday (the religious procession and the all-night dance through the streets). Drumming parties form on every corner; visitors are pulled into the dance whether they want to be or not. Book a hotel three months in advance — Kalibo's modest accommodation sells out completely. The rest of the year the cathedral is calm and ordinary.