| Paraw Regatta Festival | |
| Date: | Third Weekend of February |
| Venue: | Villa Beach |
| Location: | Arevalo, Iloilo City |
| Country: | Philippines |
The Paraw Regatta Festival or Iloilo–Guimaras Paraw Regatta Festival is an annual festival held every third weekend of February in the Arevalo, Iloilo City, Philippines. Its main event is a sailboat race in Iloilo Strait that features the paraw, a Visayan double-outrigger sail boat. It is the oldest traditional craft event in Asia, and the largest sailing event in the Philippines.[1] [2] It is one of Iloilo City's tourism events along with the Dinagyang Festival, Kasadyahan Festival, Chinese New Year festival and La Candelaria Fiesta (Fiesta de la Candelaria).[3] The Iloilo Paraw Regatta began as a half-day sailboat race but is now a multi-day, multi-event festival.
The paraw race course is long, and runs up the coast of Panay and then down the coast of Guimaras, before returning to the finish at Villa Beach.[4] Participating paraws are categorized based on the waterline length of the boat and further classified according to their sails as "unpainted" or "painted".[5] The sails are painted with colorful designs.
The racing breaks down into two classes. Boats of length 16 ft and below of strictly traditional construction and those 16 ft 1 inch through to 22 ft with a wider range of materials allowed.
The first race started in 1973 with the mission to preserve the historic value of the paraws.[6]