The people of Guimbal invites everyone to witness their one of a kind festival, the Bantayan Festival. Bantayan Festival tells a story by re-enacting how the Christian settlers of Guimbal fought against the pirates.

The municipality of Guimbal headed by their dynamic municipal mayor, Hon. Richard S. Garin is inviting everyone to celebrate with them the 2007 BANTAYAN Festival starting on March 27 with their Drum, Float, Street Dancing Competitions and the Search for Miss Bantayan Festival; the Porma Balas, Pinta Lawas, Fluvial Parade, the Re-enactment of the Moro Raid and the Bantayan Video Festival takes the limelight on March 29; and the colorful Bantayan Tribal Dance Drama Competition on March 31, 2007.

There is no better way to get to know the people of Guimbal than through their BANTAYAN Festival. It is the moment when the community strives to put on a splendid cultural presentation, not only for themselves but also for those who come from afar to admire and enjoy. Its dramatic presentation and excitement, with greater preparations and more spectacular props each year is an attempt to save its historic event in danger of extinction---the origin is the battle between the natives of Guimbal and the Muslim pirates. The format of the presentation is the theatrical enactment of attacks a battle enactment with skirmishes and dances, the victory of the people in the community against the Muslim pirates, and finally homage to the patron saint. Prominent in the presentation is the use of the prop guimba, believed to where the name of the town was derived from, it was ancient instrument of the Spanish Panayanons that resembled a drum and is beaten by hand, serving as a warning to the community for an incoming raid. The festival is the celebration of the people and it never fails to draw visitors throughout the province and the other side of the region.
Via iloilo.gov.ph