Bambanti Festival comes from the word bambanti, the word in the Ilocano language for scarecrow
The first Bambanti Festival was launched under the leadership of Benjamin Dy to celebrate the founding of Isabela in 1997.
Scarecrows are makeshift, human-like objects that are put up in farms, fields, and paddies to drive away birds from picking grains like corn and rice.
Made from a wooden frame with a crosswise bar for arms and usually has a threadbare shirt on stuffed with grass or straw to shape its body, it is an effective, age-old practice of controlling birds who can become pests that can ruin farm produce.
Scarecrows have become a symbol for Isabela, a largely agricultural province that ranks the highest in terms of corn production, second in producing rice, and top producer of mung beans. In 2019, it achieved the Guinness World Record for the most number of people assembled dressed as scarecrows.
For years, the festival was held in the month of May. However, it had been deferred a few times as it coincided with the month that the country was holding elections. It was also stopped for several years.
Thus starting in 2011 under Faustino G. Dy III, it was revived and moved to January. Another reason for such change was that the first month of every year has more favorable weather.
Bambanti Festival is an annual culture and thanksgiving festival in the province of Isabela, Philippines every fourth week of January
A week-long celebration and the biggest festival in the province, it is also known as Isabela’s Scarecrow Festival.
It is a multi-awarded event, having garnered the Aliw Award for Best Festivals Practices and Performance from 2015 to 2017 and the Aliw Award Hall of Fame in 2018.