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The World Costume Festival is an international fashion festival held every two years in the Philippines city of Vigan City in Ilocos Sur. [1] [2] [3] [4] The event showcases indigenous and modern costumes [5] geared towards live performances, such as drama, festivals, events, as well as multimedia presentations. [6] It emphasizes apparel for special ritual occasions or theater performance work as opposed to regular fashion apparel. Its organizers aim to promote tourism as well as encourage native loom-weaving and fabrics. [7] There is an emphasis on fabric materials and Philippine weaving methods such as batik, abel, and piña, from different parts of the Philippines. [6] A festival was held in Vigan City in the last week of April in 2013. [8] The dominant view is that the 2013 festival in Vigan was the first world costume festival, although there is a report of a similar costume festival that was held in Davao City in the southern Philippine island of Mindanao in 2001. [9] There are reports of the event either becoming an annual event or being held every two years. The event coincides with fashion festivals held in different cities in the Philippines. [10] The event was described as a preview for the World Stage Design Festival in Cardiff, Wales. [10] The primary focus of the event is a costume competition. The highest award at the festival is the Golden Kneeling Carabao Trophy, the carabao is a Philippine water buffalo sometimes found in swamps. [5] In addition to the costume competition, the event has workshops, classes by designers, conferences, as well as lectures from international experts. There is a costume parade down the cobblestone streets of Vigan. [11] The event has "jubilant colors" as well as a body-painting competition. [7] The Manila Standard described the event as "kaleidoscopic" with people wearing costumes from the historic past. [10]