On May 1, Labor Day, the country broke ground on its first-ever Manila Music Festival. Held at Alphaland Bay City with an amazing view of the Manila Bay, the festival proved to be a place for music lovers to immerse themselves in joyful serenity as melodic fusions and harmonic tunes bellowed over the open grounds.

People constantly poured in, in different sorts and sizes, in different clothes and garments, in different groups and circles. But all were united by the universal language that is music. The Manila Music Festival, hosted by the savvy and always passionate Sarah Meier, kicked off on the main stage with indie rock band The Nameless Heroes and Lady I, a reggae-centric group whose original sounds were better than that of the covers they played.

Meanwhile, at the far end of the venue was the Red Bull Stage where different DJs played their unique sounds to their own small crowds. At around 5:30 pm, the sun was setting and the pretty-faced, pretty-voiced June Marieezy came on the platform to mesmerize her fans. With the help of Deeper Manila, June captured our ears and had us intently falling for her hypnotic sounds.

Upon waking up from June’s spell, we were treated to soulful then hard-hitting noises from Sinosikat and Kjwan. Kat wowed the crowd with her insane vocal skills and the boys from Kwjan had us bobbing our heads with their every guitar riff.

The same could be said of the flexible sound of Wilabaliw. But the intensity would only climb a notch higher when all-time favorite OPM band Razorback went on stage. I tell you, Kevin Roy is still good at what he does. The way he tongues the words and roars at the crowd is overwhelmingly heart-stopping.

The first international artist who performed at the Manila Music Festival was Ali Shaheed Muhammad, who was one-third of the now defunct A Tribe Called Quest. His sick beats kept us moving, consistently urging us to inhale the music. And then came Afrika Bambaataa. The Godfather of HipHop. One of the highlights of the day was his set, where he mostly played old-school tunes. Truly lived up to our expectations.

And what made it more interesting was the dude on stage with him, King Kamonzi. Who was probably the best hype-man I’ve seen in my whole life. CRAZY. He was pumpin’ up the crowd, gettin’ the b-boys and b-girls to dance on stage. After their set, we bumped into him praising them for the performance while he gave me a copy of his mixtape.

Oh, and lemme just put this out there.. Shinichi Osawa IS. A. BEAST. I feel bad for the people who left early and didn’t get to catch his set, which started at around 2am. That dude is good. Now I know why they put him last on the roster. HE LEGIT.

I was at the start of the festival and until the end. More or less 13 hours. My feet were hurting and I was fuckin’ tired but it was all good. I was runnin’ on booze. And music. It was an awesome experience and I’m glad I took part in the first-ever Manila Music Festival.

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Photos by Armand Escario

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