BANANA FESTIVAL tradition that never dies in La Castellana

Have you recently attended a festival, particularly around April? That's great. What about taking part in further celebrations?

Try La Castellana, my friendly town in the Negros Occidental, nonetheless. Visit this forward-thinking community of us and take in our annual Banana Harvest Festival, which begins on April 1 and runs through April 5, and allows visitors to experience a variety of banana varieties that are abounding in the municipality. 

         Banana Festival is a harvest festival held every April showcasing the different variety of banana found abundant in this town. Booths, floats and costumes made of banana are displayed during this festival. This festival also coincides with the annual feast day of the town's patron saint, St. Vincent Ferrer. It is our tradition in La Castellana that never dies through years of doing

          You can also appreciate our agricultural trade that exhibits a bountiful harvest, not only limited to banana produce, but other farm produce and root crops.

          A parade of beautiful young girls in a float decorated with banana which 13 of the barangay in the municipality of La Castellana has a representatives. And other agricultural produce, is one of the highlight activities in the said festival which you could admire. And many more activ­i­ties that show­case cos­tumes, floats and booths are held dur­ing the fes­ti­val.

How La Castellana Got it's Name?

          The town used to be known as “Lapak”, and was then under the jurisdiction of Marayo, now Pontevedra. How Lapak was formed into a village was not definitely known, but the old belief was that early people of Marayo have cut their way inland through dense forests to search for their subsistence, realizing that life in their coastal settlement was hard.

In the latter part of the 18th century, “muscovado” sugar mills known as “De Agua” were constructed. The huge water wheel in Hda.Grande and the rusty iron ruler between the hill of Canticbel and the eastern bank of Camansi River were indications of the existence of these mills. Sugarcane planting was then encouraged during the period, and immigrants upon hearing of the rich potentials of the area came in and settled down. The place became progressive and on January 5, 1918, La Castellana was inaugurated as a town.