Discovering City of Koronadal (and/or Marbel to many) is a very simple thing. Here, vivid tyraces of history are still alive, dating from the accupation of Islamic traders and indigenous peoples up to the settlement of Ilonggo, Ilocano and Tagalog people. Yet modern as it is today, old legeds still continue to influence and inspire the existence of this young city. it is the diversity of this culture in the city that spawns a colorful extravaganza of cultural dances.

B'laan Culture
The B'laan tribe is one of the indigenous peoples of the Southern Philippine island of Mindanao. Another tribe called the Magunidanao also inhabits the same area. The two tribes consider themselves to be brothers and sisters. Long ago, an Arab male (ancestral brother) married a B'laan female (ancestral sister) and through this marriage union, Islam infiltrated Southern Mindanao so when the Spaniards arrived, their attempts to establish Catholicism were unsuccessful in the south. Eventually the B'laan and the Maguindanao became trade partners with the B'laan settling in the mountains and the Maguindanao settling along the coastal areas. From that time until now, B'laan have been producing rice, vegetables, livestock, and rainforest products. The original religion of the B'laan is Animist. Presently, only 5% of the 448,000 B'laan tribal people are considered to be evangelical.

Christian Culture
The Christian Filipinos make up the great majority (over 70%) of the Southern Philippine population. They are relative newcomers to the area; the first wave of Christian migrants came in the seventeenth century when the Spaniards sought to populate Zamboanga, Jolo, Dapitan and other areas by encouraging people from Luzon and the Visayas to settle there. In the nineteenth century Spanish policy found considerable success in encouraging migrations to Iligan and Cotabato. The Americans continued this pattern during their colonial administration. In 1913 the American colonial government provided resources for the establishment of agricultural colonies in Mindanao. By the time the Philippine Commonwealth was established, Mindanao had become a veritable frontier. Wave upon wave of migrants poured into the region, chief among them the Cebuanos, Hiligaynons, Ilokanos, Tagalogs, Warays (Leyte-Samar), Pampangos, Aklanons, and Bicolanos. These people did much to clear the virgin areas of Mindanao and open them to extensive agriculture and industry. In time, the economy of the region began to produce part of its promised.

Muslim Culture
The cultural diversity of the region is the result of a large influx of migrants from the north over a long period of the region's history. Found here are three main cultural groups: the early Filipinos who belong to various indigenous tribes living in the highlands and remote areas of Mindanao, the Muslim Filipinos who were early converts to Islam and who regard the region as their traditional homeland, and the Christian Filipinos who founded settlements and communities in the course of their migrations from other parts of the country.