Piyesta as a Window on Filipino Culture, Music and Creative Expressions in Queensland and Beyond

This blog was written by 2025 Letty Katts Fellow, Dr Carl Anacin for his project, 'Migration, Musical Practices and Belonging among Filipino Migrants in Queensland: Festivals, Music Industry Participation and Everyday Lives'.

As one of Australia’s most culturally diverse states, Queensland hosts a wide range of celebrations from various migrant groups throughout the year. For Filipinos in the diaspora, in particular, June holds especially significant because it is a month of heightened cultural activity, largely anchored in the commemoration of the Philippine Independence on the 12th of June 1897. In the vast state of Queensland, where migrant communities are spread across great distances, no fewer than five piyesta (fiesta) are held annually in June alone. These vibrant celebrations weave together music, food, cultural dances, and traditional attire, alongside contemporary elements such as beauty pageants and raffle draws, creating spaces where heritage and modern community life meet. 

While most events align with the Philippine Independence Day, the piyesta spirit extends to other significant dates in the Filipino migrant community and cultural calendar. These include Buwan ng Wika (Language Month) in August and the Sinulog Festival (in January), reflecting the adaptability of such celebrations to different contexts in the migrant experience. Regardless of the occasion, the piyesta functions as an inclusive community gathering, welcoming both Filipinos and non-Filipinos, and contributing to Queensland’s multicultural landscape.

Queensland’s Filipino festivals are deeply embedded in the state’s cultural fabric and history. Some have been celebrated every month from May to December! These events include Barrio Fiesta (Rocklea Showgrounds, Rocklea), Bayanihan Festival (Kingston Butter Factory, Kingston), Gold Coast Fil-Aust Festival (Broadwater Parklands, Southport), Pasko sa Nayon (Beryl Roberts Park, Coopers Plains), Mabuhay Philippine Festival (King George Square, Brisbane), and Buwan ng Wika events, among many others. Such celebrations aim to boost Filipino identity and strengthen solidarity between the Philippines and Australia through the growing Filipino transnational community as well as visibility as Filipinos qua Filipinos. 

Filipino festivals serve as a re-enactment of the Philippine piyesta, where a certain group or individual with financial means hosts a gathering for a town to get the community together for food and entertainment. For migrants, such gatherings offer a rare opportunity to re-experience the tastes, sounds, and social dynamics of the homeland. Iconic dishes such as ihaw-ihaw Filipino barbecue skewers, lechon (slow-roasted suckling pig), and halo-halo iced dessert are not simply culinary highlights – they are cultural touchstones, evoking memories and reinforcing identity in a diasporic setting.

Music plays a particularly significant role in such gatherings as it operates as a cultural marker and a tool for negotiating identity, whether traditional forms, indigenous sounds, or contemporary popular music. At such events, the food, cultural performances, and popular music bring back memories and affinities to those who attend the piyesta. 

Performances might range from ethnolinguistic dances representing the T’boli, Manobo, Igorot and Tagalog, among others, as well as live renditions of well-known Filipino and Anglo-American songs by bands, singers and musicians. Music in these events sonically and culturally binds the community. Listening and dancing to Sarah Geronimo’s hit song ‘Tala’ or Hotdog’s ‘Bongga Ka Day’ connects Filipinos to contemporary popular music that allows them to replicate and relocate their identity and culture even outside the Philippines. Musicians who perform ‘Nosi Balasi’ (Sampaguita), ‘Anak’ (Freddie Aguilar), or ‘Kay Ganda ng Ating Musika’ (Hajji Alejandro) allow Filipino migrants – both musicians and audiences – to maintain cultural continuity while adapting their lives in Australia. 

These festivals exemplify ‘transnational and translocal diasporic sites’ – sites where cultural practices are simultaneously anchored in a distant homeland and reshaped by the local context. They offer a platform for sustaining intracultural identity while engaging with Australia’s broader multicultural milieu. In the Filipino Australian case, the piyesta operates not only as a festive gathering but also as an enactment of cultural resilience, a site for creative expressions, heritage preservation, and negotiated belonging. In other words, piyesta acts as a window on Filipino culture, music and creative expressions in Queensland and beyond.

Have you been to a Filipino piyesta in Queensland or other parts of Australia? Share with us your experience and how you felt being surrounded by this vibrant culture. Contact qldmemory@slq.qld.gov.au if you would like to contribute to this project. 

Dr Carl Anacin 
2025 Letty Katts Fellow

The Letty Katts Fellowship documents Queensland's music history. Read other blogs by past Letty Katts Fellows. 

The Letty Katts Fellowship is generously supported through the Queensland Library Foundation endowed fund established by the late Dr Stanton Mellick OAM ED and his daughter, the late Professor Jill Mellick.