There are Philippine festivals built around flowers, harvests, saints, fruits and historical events.

Then there is Los Baños, Laguna, where the most obvious thing to celebrate is something that has shaped the town for centuries:

water.

More specifically, hot water.

Natural hot springs rising around the slopes of Mount Makiling attracted people to this part of Laguna long before today’s resorts, research institutes, restaurants and university buildings appeared. The springs became so closely associated with the community that they eventually gave the town its name.

Los Baños literally refers to the baths or bathing places.

So when the municipality eventually created its signature September celebration, the name almost wrote itself:

Bañamos Festival.

Bañamos means “we bathe” or “we take a bath” in Spanish. And while today’s festival includes street dancing, concerts, pageants, trade fairs, sports, science and nature activities, its identity continues to circle back to the water that helped put Los Baños on the map.

Every September, the festival also coincides with something even older—the founding anniversary of Los Baños.

That makes Bañamos more than a hot-spring-themed festival.

It is essentially Los Baños celebrating everything that makes the town unusual: hot springs, Mount Makiling, science, nature, universities, Laguna de Bay, history, local businesses, artists and the people who call LB home.

And once you understand all those pieces, Bañamos starts making a lot more sense.

Bañamos Festival at a Glance

Details	Information
Festival	Bañamos Festival / Bañamos Hot Spring Baths Festival
Location	Los Baños, Laguna
Region	CALABARZON / Region IV-A
Main anniversary date	September 17
Festival period	Usually around mid-September
Celebration	Los Baños founding anniversary
Meaning of Bañamos	“We bathe” / “we take a bath”
Festival established	2002
Major attraction	Bayle sa Kalye street dancing
Other recurring activities	Civic parade, cultural shows, trade fairs, pageants, sports, concerts and community events
Water-themed activities introduced in recent editions	Shower Parade, Kakaibangka and Bañamos Aqua Games
Famous local identity	Hot springs, Mount Makiling, science and nature
Official designation	Special Science and Nature City of the Philippines
Founding year recognized by LGU	1615

What Is the Bañamos Festival?

Bañamos Festival is the annual cultural and civic celebration of Los Baños, Laguna.

It is held in conjunction with the municipality’s September 17 founding anniversary and brings together several parts of Los Baños identity.

There is the historic hot-spring town.

There is the university town.

There is the science community.

There is Mount Makiling.

There is Laguna de Bay.

And then there is modern Los Baños—the busy municipality filled with students, researchers, resorts, restaurants, businesses and long-time residents.

The festival was launched in 2002 as a way to promote tourism and strengthen the local economy while showcasing the town’s history and culture. It was later formally institutionalized through a municipal ordinance.

That makes Bañamos a relatively young festival built around a town with more than four centuries of recorded history.

And that’s an important distinction.

People were coming to Los Baños for its springs centuries before anyone organized a street-dancing competition.

The festival came later.

The water story came first.

What Does Bañamos Mean?

Bañamos is Spanish for “we bathe” or “we take a bath.”

And yes, the name is intentionally connected with Los Baños.

Los Baños itself means “the baths” or “bathing places,” referring to the natural hot springs that became the area’s defining feature during the Spanish colonial period.

The Philippine Information Agency explains that Bañamos was chosen as a direct tribute to this identity and the town’s long association with hot springs.

It’s one of those rare festival names that doesn’t need a complicated legend to explain it.

The town became famous for bathing.

So the festival basically says:

We bathe.

And in recent years, organizers have leaned into that meaning much more literally by adding actual water-based activities to the celebration.

More on those later.

Before Los Baños Was Los Baños, It Was Mainit

The story goes much further back than the modern festival.

Los Baños originally formed part of the larger settlement of Bay in Laguna.

The municipal government says the area was once called Mainit because of the hot springs associated with Mount Makiling.

“Mainit,” of course, means hot.

The name was very practical.

People knew the place because hot water came out of the ground.

In 1589, Franciscan missionary Fr. Pedro Bautista established public baths in the area and renamed the settlement Los Baños. By 1595, the friars were developing facilities around the springs, including accommodations for people coming to bathe and seek relief from illnesses.

That helps explain why water remains so central to the town’s identity more than four centuries later.

Los Baños did not become famous for hot springs because modern resorts started advertising them.

The resorts came because the springs were already here.

The Hot Springs of Mount Makiling

Los Baños sits beside Mount Makiling, one of the most recognizable mountains in Southern Luzon.

The geothermal activity associated with the mountain helps produce the hot springs that made the town famous.

PIA describes Los Baños as known for abundant natural hot springs connected with Mount Makiling’s steam vents.

Today, hot-spring resorts remain an important part of local tourism.

Drive through areas around Los Baños and nearby Calamba and you’ll find everything from simple pools to larger resorts built around naturally heated water.

For visitors from Metro Manila, a hot-spring weekend has become almost a tradition of its own.

And that tourism economy is one reason Bañamos matters.

A festival centered on water gives Los Baños another opportunity to remind travelers what brought visitors here in the first place.

Are the Hot Springs Really Healing?

Historical descriptions often say people believed the springs had curative properties.

The Los Baños municipal government notes that the springs attracted Spanish friars partly because of their reputation for providing relief from ailments, while PIA says the Franciscans viewed the springs and steam vents as healing.

But it’s useful to separate history from modern medical claims.

Warm-water bathing can obviously be relaxing, and geothermal water may contain dissolved minerals.

That is different from saying a hot spring can cure a particular disease.

So when you encounter the term “healing waters” in festival history, understand it primarily in its historical and cultural context rather than as a medical guarantee.

Why September 17 Matters

Bañamos Festival isn’t scheduled in September simply because organizers wanted a good festival month.

September 17 is Los Baños Foundation Day.

The municipal seal identifies 1615 as the town’s founding year and states that Los Baños became separate from Bay on September 17, 1615.

This date is now protected by national law.

Republic Act No. 11116 declares September 17 of every year a special nonworking holiday in Los Baños specifically to commemorate the municipality’s founding anniversary and annual Bañamos Festival.

That’s significant.

Bañamos is not simply an event added to Foundation Day.

The two celebrations are now formally connected.

Every September 17, Los Baños isn’t only celebrating a festival.

It’s marking another year of the town itself.

How Did Bañamos Festival Begin?

The first Bañamos Festival was staged in 2002.

PIA identifies that year as the launch of the festival, with the celebration designed to promote tourism and support the local economy through history, culture, parades, dances, exhibits and performances.

That timeline also matches the modern festival numbering.

The 24th Bañamos Festival was celebrated in 2025, and the Los Baños municipal government is preparing the 25th edition in 2026.

The festival was formally institutionalized through Municipal Ordinance No. 2007-663, according to later Los Baños ordinances amending the annual celebration.

So the modern history can roughly be understood this way:

Los Baños’ hot-spring identity is centuries old.

Its September founding celebration is historical.

Bañamos as an organized tourism and cultural festival dates to 2002.

And over the following decades, the program kept expanding.

Bayle sa Kalye: Bañamos Street Dancing

For many visitors, this is the cultural highlight.

Bayle sa Kalye is Bañamos Festival’s major street-dancing competition.

Barangay contingents move through Los Baños in colorful costumes, using choreography, music, props and large formations to represent different parts of local culture.

In the 2025 edition, Barangay Mayondon won the competition along with Best in Street Dance and Best in Showdown, while Timugan, San Antonio, Anos and Malinta also placed. The municipal government described Bayle sa Kalye as more than a contest, emphasizing its role in showcasing unity, local talent and Los Baños culture.

That description tells you what the event is trying to do.

The dancers aren’t simply competing for a trophy.

Each barangay gets an opportunity to turn its identity into performance.

What Do Bañamos Dancers Wear?

There isn’t one permanent Bañamos costume.

The designs change depending on the theme and participating barangay.

You may see costumes influenced by:

water,

plants,

Mount Makiling,

local history,

agriculture,

science,

indigenous or folkloric imagery,

flowers,

and the colors associated with particular communities.

Some groups use large props that create almost theatrical landscapes around the dancers.

Others focus more heavily on synchronized movement and percussion.

That freedom makes Bayle sa Kalye visually unpredictable.

One contingent may look completely different from the next.

The Showdown

Street dancing shows you the festival moving through Los Baños.

The showdown shows you the full production.

Once contingents reach the performance area, they can use more complicated choreography and larger formations.

This is where props really start working.

A design that looks strange when carried along a road can suddenly make sense when dozens of dancers assemble around it.

Water may appear.

Mountains may appear.

Trees.

Flowers.

Scientific imagery.

Local legends.

Historic scenes.

The entire story comes together for a few minutes.

The Shower Parade: Taking “Bañamos” Literally

For years, Los Baños had a festival named after bathing—but much of the program looked like other civic festivals.

In 2023, organizers decided to make the water connection much more obvious.

They introduced a Bañamos kick-off Shower Parade.

Water showers, bubbles and color blasts were installed along the route so participants didn’t simply watch a parade.

They got wet.

Very wet.

PIA reported that the activity was created specifically to strengthen the festival’s connection with the meaning of Bañamos.

That is such a simple idea that you wonder why it took so long.

A festival called “we bathe” probably should include water.

The 2023 municipal ordinance covering Bañamos activities confirms the Shower Parade as one of that year’s official festival events.

Whether the exact format returns every year depends on organizers, but it has already become one of the most distinctive modern additions to Bañamos.

Kakaibangka: Bringing Laguna de Bay Into the Festival

Hot springs aren’t the only important water in Los Baños.

There is also Laguna de Bay.

The lake forms a huge part of the landscape and historically supported local fishing communities.

Bañamos organizers introduced Kakaibangka in 2023 to showcase that side of town life.

Local fisherfolk decorated motorized boats and presented them along the lakeshore. Entries were evaluated for aspects including appearance, creativity, function, durability, safety and environmental considerations.

I particularly like this activity because it broadens the festival’s water story.

Bañamos doesn’t have to mean only resort pools.

Water in Los Baños also means:

springs,

lakes,

fishing,

livelihood,

ecosystems,

and environmental responsibility.

Kakaibangka puts that relationship right in front of festival visitors.

Bañamos Aqua Games and Tadlac Lake

Another water-themed activity introduced in 2023 was the Bañamos Aqua Games.

Barangay participants competed in water relays at Tadlac Lake, also known as Crocodile Lake.

According to PIA, local officials used the event partly to draw more attention to Tadlac Lake as a tourism destination.

That is another example of the festival serving a practical tourism purpose.

Visitors who already know Los Baños for hot springs may discover:

Wait, there’s a lake here too?

Then they have another reason to stay longer.

Bañamos Is Also About Science

Here’s where Los Baños becomes very different from most Philippine festival towns.

This is not only a resort community.

It is one of the most important scientific and academic centers in the country.

In August 2000, Presidential Proclamation No. 349 officially declared Los Baños the Special Science and Nature City of the Philippines, recognizing the municipality as a major national and international center of learning and scientific research within a preserved natural environment.

That designation is deeply connected with institutions located in the town.

UP Los Baños is here.

The International Rice Research Institute is headquartered here.

Los Baños also hosts or is associated with numerous research and science organizations working in agriculture, forestry, biodiversity, natural resources and other fields. The municipality’s own profile emphasizes the concentration of universities and research institutions in the community.

So when Bañamos incorporates science and nature into the festival, it isn’t adding a random educational theme.

Science is part of everyday Los Baños.

Science and Nature During Bañamos

Recent editions have deliberately highlighted this identity.

During the 2025 festival, Los Baños held an Inter-Agency Booth Fair, Dish Garden Contest and seminar that the municipal government connected directly with the town’s Special Science and Nature City identity.

A Flower and Garden Show was also included in the festival program.

These activities are less dramatic than street dancing, but they’re actually some of the most distinctively Los Baños parts of the celebration.

Many towns can organize dancers.

Not many Philippine municipalities can put major science institutions, plant experts, researchers, university communities and environmental organizations into the same festival ecosystem.

UPLB and the Los Baños Identity

It’s difficult to imagine modern Los Baños without the University of the Philippines Los Baños.

Students come from around the Philippines and overseas.

Researchers work across agriculture, forestry, economics, engineering, biology, food science, environmental science and numerous other disciplines.

Entire neighborhoods have developed around the needs of the university population.

Restaurants survive partly because of students.

Apartments and boarding houses fill with students.

Local businesses cater to university life.

And the surrounding research community draws scientists from around the world.

That gives Bañamos a strange but enjoyable mixture.

You can have traditional street dancing in one part of town while researchers from international institutions are working only a few kilometers away.

That contrast is not a contradiction.

It is Los Baños.

IRRI: A Global Science Institution in Los Baños

The International Rice Research Institute is another reason the town’s scientific identity reaches far beyond Laguna.

IRRI’s headquarters are located on Pili Drive in Los Baños. The institute focuses on research and innovation involving rice and rice-based food systems.

That makes Los Baños internationally significant in a way many casual weekend visitors don’t realize.

Someone may arrive simply to swim in a hot spring and eat buko pie.

Meanwhile, scientists nearby are working on research affecting rice farmers and food systems in multiple countries.

Bañamos increasingly tries to tell both stories.

Los Baños is a place to relax.

And a place to learn.

Mount Makiling: Nature at the Center of Everything

Then there is Mount Makiling.

The mountain is so important to Los Baños identity that it appears on the municipal seal.

The local government describes it as a center of rich flora and fauna and a symbol of the municipality’s natural environment.

For most Filipinos, however, Mount Makiling is also inseparable from the legend of Mariang Makiling.

The mythical guardian of the mountain appears throughout Philippine folklore as a mysterious woman associated with the forest and its natural resources.

Her face is even represented in the official Los Baños seal.

That mixture of science and folklore is another thing I like about Los Baños.

The mountain can be studied scientifically.

It can be protected ecologically.

And it can still be the home of a legendary diwata in local imagination.

All three stories can exist at the same time.

The Civic Parade

September 17 usually brings particular attention to Los Baños’ founding anniversary.

Recent Bañamos celebrations have included a civic parade bringing together government agencies, organizations, schools, institutions and various sectors of the community.

The 2025 parade ran from Olivarez Plaza to General Paciano Rizal Park as Los Baños marked its 410th founding anniversary.

Unlike Bayle sa Kalye, this isn’t primarily a dance competition.

It’s more like the whole town introducing itself.

Government offices.

Schools.

Organizations.

Community groups.

Research institutions.

Everyone gets a place in the procession.

And that fits Bañamos perfectly because the festival is ultimately about Los Baños as a community.

Cultural Shows

Dance doesn’t end with Bayle sa Kalye.

Recent editions have included school and cultural performances featuring folk dance, Filipino music, contemporary dance and other artistic presentations.

The 2025 DepEd Cultural Show included performers from schools across Los Baños, including the Philippine High School for the Arts.

That is another advantage of holding a festival in a university and arts community.

There is plenty of talent available.

Bailamos

Bailamos is Bañamos’ modern dance competition.

The name itself is another playful Spanish-inspired festival word—bailamos meaning “we dance.”

Recent editions have featured dance crews competing through contemporary choreography, lifts and group performances.

This gives younger performers something very different from traditional or festival street dancing.

Bayle sa Kalye is rooted more heavily in community festival presentation.

Bailamos allows contemporary dance crews to bring their own style.

Both belong in a modern Los Baños celebration.

Zumbaños

Then you have Zumbaños.

You can probably guess what happens here.

Zumba.

Lots of it.

Recent festivals have included mass fitness-dance activities bringing together participants from different age groups.

The name continues the Bañamos tradition of taking Los Baños and turning it into festival wordplay.

Bañamos.

Bailamos.

Zumbaños.

You have to appreciate the commitment.

Palarong Bañamos

Filipino games have also become part of the program.

Palarong Bañamos brings community participants together for recreational and traditional games.

Recent Los Baños festival coverage describes it as an event built around Pinoy games and community participation.

Not everything needs an elaborate stage.

Sometimes the most enjoyable festival events are the ones where people simply play.

Padyak LB

Cycling has also earned a place in recent celebrations.

Padyak LB brings cyclists into the festival program through a community ride.

The 2025 edition traveled from Lakewood Subdivision toward the Municipal Activity Area.

This fits Los Baños well.

The town has a strong outdoor community, particularly because of Mount Makiling, university life and the surrounding roads used by cyclists.

Mister and Miss Los Baños

Like many Philippine festivals, Bañamos has a pageant component.

Mister and Miss Los Baños brings together representatives expected to showcase not only appearance but also knowledge, confidence and local pride.

For 2026, the municipal government has already conducted the official orientation of Mister and Miss Los Baños candidates as part of preparations for the 25th Bañamos Festival. The orientation even included a discussion of Los Baños history and culture led by the municipal tourism office.

That last detail matters.

If you’re representing Los Baños, you’re expected to know what you’re representing.

Barangay Trade Fair

One part of Bañamos I would definitely visit is the barangay trade fair.

In 2025, all sorts of local products were displayed, including food, handicrafts and products representing the identities of individual barangays.

This is where festivals can actually help local businesses.

A street-dancing competition produces entertainment.

A trade fair can produce customers.

Small businesses gain exposure.

Visitors discover products they might never encounter elsewhere.

And every barangay gets an opportunity to show something about itself.

Los Baños Food: Don’t Leave Without Buko Pie

You can’t write a Los Baños travel guide without eventually reaching buko pie.

The municipality itself recognizes the town’s reputation for buko pie and other locally associated food businesses.

Buko pie isn’t exclusive to Los Baños, of course, but the Los Baños–Laguna corridor has become strongly associated with it.

Festival week is a good excuse to try one fresh.

You will also find plenty of restaurants around the UPLB and town-center areas because the large student and research population supports a surprisingly varied food scene.

Come for the dancing.

Stay for merienda.

The Grand Revelry

Bañamos usually ends big.

Recent editions have used a Grand Revelry-style concert as a major culmination event.

The 2025 celebration featured national and local musicians during its final night.

By that point, the festival has already gone through parades, competitions, pageants, cultural events and community activities.

The concert becomes the release.

Everyone gathers.

The performances begin.

And another Bañamos comes to an end.

Bañamos Is Also a History Festival

The water theme is memorable, but Los Baños has increasingly emphasized heritage too.

The municipality has been developing and promoting the Lakbay Los Baños Heritage Walk to bring residents and visitors closer to historic places and stories.

In 2025, the local government explicitly highlighted heritage as part of the direction of Bañamos and tourism development, arguing that understanding the town’s history helps distinguish the festival from others.

That’s a smart approach.

Hot springs tell only one part of Los Baños.

There are stories connected with the Spanish colonial period.

There is Paciano Rizal.

There is World War II and the famous Los Baños Raid.

There is the development of UPLB.

There is the arrival of international science institutions.

There is the environmental history of Mount Makiling.

The more you learn, the less Bañamos feels like “just a street festival.”

General Paciano Rizal

One important Los Baños historical figure is General Paciano Rizal, older brother of national hero José Rizal.

Paciano lived in Los Baños after the revolution, and his connection with the town remains part of its historical identity.

He is represented on the municipal seal, and General Paciano Rizal Park now serves as an important civic space that regularly hosts local events.

During Bañamos, the park can become one of the busiest gathering places in town.

Laguna de Bay

Mount Makiling dominates one side of the Los Baños landscape.

Laguna de Bay defines another.

The lake remains part of the municipality’s geography and livelihood history and is represented by waves on the official seal.

Modern Bañamos activities such as Kakaibangka have helped bring that lakeside identity back into the festival.

This is important because visitors can easily think of Los Baños purely as a mountain and hot-spring destination.

It is also a lakeshore community.

Why Bañamos Is Different From Other Laguna Festivals

Laguna has no shortage of festivals.

But Bañamos has one advantage:

its themes are unusually broad without feeling completely unrelated.

Water gives you the name.

Hot springs give you tourism.

Mount Makiling gives you nature.

UPLB and research institutes give you science.

Laguna de Bay gives you fishing and aquatic culture.

Barangays provide the street dancing.

Local businesses provide the trade fair.

Historic sites provide the heritage story.

Put all of those together and you have a festival that genuinely reflects the town.

That’s much stronger than inventing a generic street-dancing competition and attaching a municipal name to it.

When Is Bañamos Festival Celebrated?

The date you should always remember is:

September 17

That is Los Baños Foundation Day and the annual special nonworking holiday established by Republic Act No. 11116.

The full festival normally covers several days around that date.

Exact duration changes.

For example, the 2023 festival ran from September 17 to 24.

In 2025, the main 24th Bañamos Festival program ran from September 16 through September 20, with September 17 marking the 410th founding anniversary.

So don’t assume one year’s dates automatically apply to the next.

September 17 stays important.

The surrounding schedule moves.

Visiting Bañamos Festival for the First Time

Bañamos is one of the easier major provincial festivals to reach from Metro Manila.

That doesn’t mean festival day will be easy.

Road closures can affect major streets used for parades and performances.

In previous editions, sections of roads around Baybayin, Timugan and Batong Malake have been temporarily closed for festival events.

If street dancing is your priority, arrive early.

Very early is better than slightly late.

Once the parade begins, trying to drive through the center can become frustrating.

What Should You Bring?

Comfortable shoes.

Water.

An umbrella.

Sun protection.

A waterproof phone pouch isn’t a bad idea either—especially if the Shower Parade or another water event is part of the program.

This is one Philippine festival where protecting your electronics from water isn’t only about rain.

Expect September Rain

Los Baños is lush for a reason.

September falls within the wet season.

Rain can affect schedules and routes.

Always check official announcements on festival morning if the weather is questionable.

And don’t assume street dancing automatically stops because of a little rain.

Filipino festival performers can be remarkably determined.

Stay for More Than One Day

Bañamos works much better as a weekend or multi-day trip.

You could spend one day on festival activities.

Then use another day for the parts of Los Baños that explain the festival.

Visit the UPLB area.

Explore the foothills of Mount Makiling.

Try a hot-spring resort.

See the lakeside.

Eat buko pie.

Visit historic sites.

Once you do that, all the festival imagery begins making more sense.

Bañamos Festival Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Bañamos Festival celebrated?

Bañamos Festival is celebrated in Los Baños, Laguna, in the CALABARZON region.

What does Bañamos mean?

Bañamos means “we bathe” or “we take a bath” in Spanish.

The name refers to Los Baños’ historic identity as a place of natural hot springs and bathing areas.

When is Bañamos Festival?

The festival is held around the middle of September.

September 17 is the fixed date to remember because it is Los Baños Foundation Day and an annual special nonworking holiday under Republic Act No. 11116.

When did Bañamos Festival start?

The festival was launched in 2002.

What is Bañamos Festival famous for?

Bañamos features civic and cultural parades, Bayle sa Kalye street dancing, trade fairs, cultural performances, pageants, sports and entertainment.

Recent editions have also introduced water-based attractions such as the Shower Parade, Kakaibangka and Bañamos Aqua Games.

What is Bayle sa Kalye?

Bayle sa Kalye is Bañamos Festival’s major barangay street-dancing competition and showdown.

Why is Los Baños famous for hot springs?

Natural geothermal activity associated with Mount Makiling produces hot springs around the area. These springs attracted visitors even during the Spanish colonial period and helped give Los Baños its name.

When was Los Baños founded?

The Municipality of Los Baños officially recognizes September 17, 1615 as its founding date.

Is Bañamos a religious festival?

Not primarily.

Bañamos is mainly a cultural, historical, tourism and civic festival commemorating Los Baños’ founding anniversary.

A Thanksgiving Mass and other faith-related activities may form part of particular editions, but the festival is not centered on a patron-saint feast.

Why is Los Baños called the Special Science and Nature City?

Presidential Proclamation No. 349 designated Los Baños the Special Science and Nature City of the Philippines in 2000, recognizing its unusually large concentration of scientific, academic and research institutions in a natural setting.

What are the best things to do in Los Baños besides Bañamos?

Popular options include visiting the UPLB area, exploring Mount Makiling and nearby nature attractions, experiencing a hot-spring resort, seeing Laguna de Bay or Tadlac Lake, exploring local heritage sites and trying local food such as buko pie.

Bañamos Festival 2026

This article is meant to remain useful well beyond one particular year, but 2026 is an important edition.

Los Baños is preparing for the:

25th Bañamos Festival

It will coincide with the:

411th Founding Anniversary of Los Baños

The municipal government began formal preparations as early as May 2026 and intensified planning again in August, with committees working on activities, participants and festival logistics.

The most important confirmed date is:

September 17, 2026 — Los Baños Foundation Day

Under Republic Act No. 11116, September 17 is an annual special nonworking holiday in the municipality in commemoration of both Los Baños’ foundation anniversary and Bañamos Festival.

Mister and Miss Los Baños 2026 is also officially part of the 25th festival, with the municipal government already conducting candidate orientation in August.

As of the latest official municipal information available in early September, preparations for the 25th Bañamos Festival were confirmed, but a complete final day-by-day public program had not yet been reliably surfaced on the municipal website.

Travelers attending specifically for Bayle sa Kalye, the civic parade, concerts, water activities or other individual competitions should therefore check the newest announcements from the Los Baños Municipal Government and Tourism Office before leaving.

Final Thoughts

Bañamos works because Los Baños doesn’t have to invent a festival identity.

It already has one.

Water comes out of the ground.

Mount Makiling rises above the town.

Laguna de Bay stretches beside it.

Scientists work in research laboratories.

Students move between classrooms and cafés.

Farmers and researchers think about rice.

Fisherfolk still depend on the lake.

Families come for hot-spring weekends.

Visitors stop for buko pie on the way home.

And every September, all of those versions of Los Baños meet in one celebration.

Bayle sa Kalye gives you the color.

The Shower Parade gives you the water.

Trade fairs give you local products.

Science and garden activities remind you that this is no ordinary resort town.

The civic parade remembers the community.

September 17 remembers the town’s history.

And the name Bañamos takes everything back to where the story began:

the baths.

More than four centuries after people first became fascinated by the warm springs of this part of Laguna, Los Baños is still gathering around water.

Only now, there are drums, dancers and an entire festival joining them.