The celebration started in 1996, which aim to promote the city and its main produce, the coconut.  This is the idea of Robert, an advocacy officer of the San Miguel Group of Companies based in Laguna.

The festival consists of Street dancing, float parade, street concerts, nightly programs before the city fiesta and some other important events like the yearly “Mutya at Lakan ng San Pablo”.

The Coconut Festival Street Dancing is a competition among schools within San Pablo City. The competition is divided in three divisions: Elementary, Secondary and the College Divisions. During the early festivals, costumes were 90% made from coconut trees. But later on, it was decided that costumes may not be much from coconut.

The street dancing competition is preceded by the float parade. Brightly decorated floats are also carried around San Pablo at the same time as the street dance festival.

The Coco Carnival Queen during the Coco Fest also takes the limelight of the festival. The event showcases the creativity of San Pablo by making festive gowns and costumes purely made from the coconut tree. In the early Coco Festivals, this was not a competition. And as time lapses, costumes for the Coco Carnival Queen become bigger, bolder and impressive.

The food served during the festival is also all made from coconut, with a variety of sweet and savory dishes sold on the street or in restaurants.

According to Wikipedia, hellotravel.com and geocities.ws