a festival to call our own

Ladies and Germs, I give you the first ever Manila Music Festival! It was held last May 1st at Aseana Avenue, Alphaland Bay City Grounds in Paranaque. Thanks to my friend Marita (check out her take on Manila Music Festival for When In Manila here) for hooking us up! I didn't spend even one dime. You know I'm the biggest cheapskate ever, always game for anything free! Hah

I'm a sucker for music festivals. I will attend anything and everything I can, even going out of my way and flying to another country! (read on that crazy adventure here)

Although festivals like Coachella, Bamboozle, Glastonbury, SXSW, etc are way out of the picture for me (well at least for now), I'm glad we have something to satisfy our rowdy festival cravings. 

Blogger Patricia Prieto with her very dangerous weapon.

Veggie taco from the GuacTruck! An all organic Filipino-Mexican deli on wheels! Such a genius idea.

(Top from Giordano Ladies, Mustard skirt from Forever 21, Necklace from Love Diva, Wide brim fedora from Bangkok, Vintage belt and oversized plaid vest from Dad's closet)

(Photo from Status Magazine)

There were two stages, the Main Stage and the Red Bull Stage.
On the Main Stage, The Nameless Heroes, June Marieezy, Lady I, SinoSikat, Kjwan, Wilabaliw, and Razorback completed the list of local acts.

(Photo by Will Wilkins of Blue Nite Photo)
June Marieezy. SDA pride!


SinoSikat kat kat kat...
I'm glad I saw them finally them live! "Magic" and "So Blue" are all-time favorites.




The boys of Kjwan. Flawless as always! So bummed Boogie was absent though...

(Photo by Will Wilkins of Blue Nite Photo)
And my favorite local performers of the night, Wilabaliw!
"Illuminate I" was even better live! And Ian Tayao was intense! Had too much Red Bull I think.

The legendary, Razorback!

 (Photo by Will Wilkins of Blue Nite Photo)

International acts include Afrika Bambaataa, Ali Shaheed Muhammad (of A Tribe Called Quest), and Shinichi Osawa.

The lovely host of the night Ms. Sarah Meier giving us a little info on Ali Shaheed.

Ali Shaheed Muhammad killed it! Wish I knew half the songs he played though! But I'm glad I had new music to bring back home.

What everyone's been waiting for! Afrika Bambaataa! With special appearance of The Philippine All-Stars!





I didn't get to see Shinichi Osawa play his set but I could hear him from where I was lying. And it sounded pretty rad! Need to educate myself on more of his songs!

I only got to hear Miss Badkiss, Noodles, and Nix Damp P play their sets! Would love to check out each and everyone on the Red Bull stage since it's a genre I barely know (but lately been open to it) if only I had the luxury to do so that night. It was music overload!

Marita with blogger Raleene Cabrera and artist Rizza Cabrera.

The festival was a success! Props to everyone who made this happen! 'Till next year!

Some photos are taken from Red Bull After Party
All photos taken by Beverly Kho and Marita Galvez unless otherwise stated.

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All for the love of Incubus: Incubus Tribute Night

Last July 14, the Street Team held an Incubus Tribute Night at B-Side to celebrate Incubus' new album "If Not Now, When?" and for their 3rd concert in Manila last July 28. It is also a fund-raising event where proceeds will be donated to Bantay Bata 163, RockEd, and of course to the Make Yourself Foundation.

I guess all our hard work paid off when we actually had the chance to tell Brandon, Mike, Jose, Ben, and Kil face to face (more of that magical momentum to be posted soon) about all we've been doing. Brandon thanked us and told us "Wow you guys! That's amazing!" and even gave a shoutout "Thank you to the Incubus Street Team. We love you guys!" on stage while they were about to play the last song "Nice To Know You". (Concert blog post soon!)

It was a success and it's nice to know that almost 500 people came and supported our little event that we worked every blood and sweat for. It is crazy how we managed to pull off something like this. Props to Kat Sales and Lei Europa!

We all had different tasks assigned. I was one of the photographers that night and helped bit with the t-shirt/ticket selling. (Pardon me, this is going to be a photo heavy post...)

I saw a lot of famous familiar faces that night. Like this guy right here wearing the multi-colored cap...remember that dude from Urbandub's "First of Summer" music video and Bamboo's "Muli" music video? Mhmm.

Speaking of Bamboo, Nathan Azarcon was also present...

I was roaming around taking pictures of people while killing time and waiting for Kjwan to play. I haven't seen them play live, I was interested how they sounded.

The bands were really good and did splendid covers of Incubus songs!

Soil and Green was the first band to play. Of course a little Boyd imitation was expected from the frontman. Teehee

Letter Day Story which was really good much to my surprise. I just hope they ditched the whole "rock" act with "all band members freeze!" part during the middle of the song. That was...interesting.

I was outside while Dash Between Dates was playing so I didn't get to watch them but could hear them from where I was. They were really good as well...I remembered they played hit singles like "Stellar" and "Circles". 

 (Grabbed from Benjie Dela Pena and Daniel Richard)

 Kjwan up next and the room suddenly felt like a giant moshpit. They covered "Mexico" and everyone sang along. It was lovely...

They played some original songs as well.

One of my favorite pictures I took of the boys, Marc and Boogie playing on set while Boogie works on a solo during "Pintura".

Lime was up next who decided to go old school by covering "Deep Inside" and "Glass" off the S.C.I.E.N.C.E album. Everyone jumped and sang along...including me.

I loved that their drummer was a girl, banging on Pasillas beats so perfectly. Woman empowerment! Haha



Malay balanced the vibe by going ballad covering "Here In My Room" and new single, "Promises, Promises".

Thanks to a few friends who came despite my non-stop shameless plugging on the interweb!
Haha.

Special Thanks to our Sponsors:

Jack TV, Universal Channel, Ovation Productions, Store and Stack, Sony Music, At The Womb, Indie Band News, UR Face Radio, Full Circle Communications, Odyssey Music and Video, Odysseylive.net and MYX, our official Music Channel

All photos by Beverly Kho

Click HERE for my Incubus Tribute Night bands photo set!

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