PUBLISHING DATE: JUNE 2014
(Original Submission)
MUSIC FESTIVALS TO TRY 2014
Don’t believe everything you see online. As much as we want Coachella Philippines to happen, it just ain’t. But with the thriving homegrown music scene, don’t succumb to peer pressure just yet and spend your cache on a ticket to California. The eargasm didn’t end with 7107 IMF and Malasimbo, trust us. We’ve got your year planned out with our guide to legit music festivals happening for the rest of 2014.
Close-up Forever Summer
Expect this: Made for the people, by the people, this music festival puts the Philippine government to shame. Close-up Forever Summer is the first in the country to ever have the public call the shots on the party’s flow. Well done, Close-up. You've put the blame of the all DJ line-up, a surfeit of electro-pop, fusion, and progressive beats, to the masses. The minority may not find this as their ideal summer soundtrack, but who cares, the music festival is also hinting at granting grand wishes – neon lights, water guns, trampolines, and all that's wet and fun. It's bound to be amusing. Let's see if we can still vote for naked bouncers...
Date: April 5
Place: Globe Circuit Event Grounds, Manila
It ain't a festival without: Alesso, Deniz Koyu, and Helena, with Ace Ramos, Mars Miranda, Martin Pulgar, and Marc Naval
Dole out: P2,000 Gold | P3,000 VIP
Juice tip-off: Fill up and hydrate at Ziggurat or El Chupacabra before heading to the party. Settling down with a cup of joe and a tattoo at Vice Coffee and Ink seems like a fitting conclusion to the night, too.
Summer Siren Festival
Expect this: Heady, smoked up sound trips by the beach are the finest. Multiply that by a hundred and you get the Summer Siren Festival. The two-night music montage is the perfect time for stumbling-drunk no inhibitions dancing and hazy memories (you bound never to have ever again but don’t regret making anyway). If you’re not jonesing, Summer Siren has more than just bands, DJs, and yacht parties up its sleeves; there’s poi lessons, yoga, cross fit, and spin jams as well. Whatever rocks your boat, just remember that you’re in a music festival at the beach goddamnit. Make the most out of it. Just sayin’.
Date: April 4-6
Place: Crystal Beach Resort, Zambales
It ain't a festival without: Up Dharma Down, Franco, The Zombettes, Travis Monsod, Taken By Cars, Pedicab, Techy Romantics, Yolanda Moon, DJ Euric, Marc Marasigan, Deuce Manila, David Ardiente, Brian Cua, Pulso, Nina Saputil, Curse & Bless, Joey Santos, Coffee Break Island, Nikki Rojas, Silverfilter, Katsy Lee, BV, Skymarines, Kidwolf, Arra Pascual, Maude, Vince Teotico, DJ Seeya, Project Collab Manila, DJ Tek, DCFER, DJDC, MC Ron Thug, and more!
Dole Out: P2,112 Regular | P3,696 VIP
Juice tip-off: Take out Xtremely Xpresso Cafe's Big Ben Pizza in Subic for your late night binge fest while stuck in Crystal Beach. Or you can scrimp and try Goto Gate Carinderia for the best innards-garlic-mushy-rice treat, also in Subic. Extend your trip and explore Zambales's Capones Island (visit the Faro de Punta Capones Lighthouse), Anawangin Cove, and Mt. Balingkilat.
Pulp Summer Slam 14: Children of the Damned
Expect this: Bring a firearm, or pepper spray at least, if partaking in the bloodletting isn’t up your ally. What, this isn’t the annual devil worshippers soiree? Shit, my bad. Confusing one for the other isn’t surprising with the previous Pulp Summer Slams held on the date the Church of Satan was founded. The annual rock and music festival has been serving up carnage and eardrum-bursting screams to the eccentric Pulp Magazine followers and panks-nat-ded groupies for 14 years strong. They must be doing something right.
Date: April 26
Place: Amoranto Stadium, Q.C.
It ain't a festival without: Bullet For My Valentine, Asking Alexandra, Hatebreed, Kreator, Death Angel, The Black Dahlia Murder, Crossfaith
Dole out: P400
Juice tip-off: All that shrieking can get you hungry. Maginhawa Street is the food mecca you’ll want to end up in for sulit meals. Pig out at Tomato Kick, Cocina Juan, Blacksoup Café + Artspace, and Al Farsi Persian Grill.
EDITORS’ PICK: Wanderland
Expect this: Christened as the music and arts festival of 2013, even going as far as declaring it as the country’s Coachella, the anticipation continues to swell for Wanderland 2014. With the ticket price announced but the line up nowhere in sight, naysayers may deem it a sham (much like 7107 IMF, but look at how that turned out). Believers assert otherwise. We’re keeping our fingers crossed if Karpos Multimedia can outpace last year’s Temper Trap, Neon Trees, and Nada Surf (among others). Our honest opinion? This is bound to be the year’s best music festival.
Date: May 17
Place: Globe Circuit Event Grounds, Manila
It ain't a festival without: TBA
Dole out: P4,800
Juice tip-off: Beat the traffic and book ahead at Lokal Hostel, our 2014 pick for the best hostel in Manila. Then get the crazy going before the music fest and down a couple of tequila shots at A’Toda Madre. You’ll thank us for it.
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RUMOR HAS IT:
Manila Music Festival
We have MMF to thank for introducing the Manila crowd to what they claim as the first music festival we can dub our own. That was in 2012 and the Philippine music status quo has lunged since then. We didn’t hear from MMF last year but word from the grapevine is that they’ll make a comeback this May. Here’s to hoping it’ll take its crown back as the country’s biggest.
Target date: May
Get updates here: https://www.facebook.com/ManilaMusicFestival
Fete de la Musique
Fete virgins keep it a well-guarded secret until they’ve gone ‘cause you just can’t miss this institution of an event. The yearly French based world music fest hosts about a hundred musicians from all genres conceivable in several pocket stages and one main event location. The past years were headlined by electro group Naive New Beaters, DJ collective Chinese Man, and rock band Merzhin. This year is expected to be as impressive as always.
Target date: June
Get updates here: https://www.facebook.com/fete.dela.musique.philippines
La Union Soul Surf
Beachies know that as the surfing season officially starts, they have more reason than serious shreds to visit La Union on ber-months – and it’s been going on for eight years. La Union Soul Surf is a three-day bash of awesome music from DJs and top bands and art by local visual artists all while relishing the beach breaks. This is why we love this country; it’s summer all year round.
Target date: October
Get updates here: https://www.facebook.com/LaUnionSoulSurf
Fete de la WSK
This isn’t your typical music fest but it’s definitely one for the books. It’s a gathering of audiophiles and esthetes where the spotlight on experimental, digital, and contemporary sounds concretizes the fluidity of music as art. With the likes of The Observatory, Cinema Explosion, Elemento, and Gentle Universe lending their talents last year, Fete de la WSK 2014 will unquestionably be, as they say, “The Festival for The Recently Possible.”
Target date: November
Get updates here: https://www.facebook.com/FetedelaWSK
Big Fish Manila's Exception Music Festival
Big Fish Manila has branded their Exception Music Festival as the REAL electronic music festival the Philippines has witnessed, even comparing it to UK’s Creamfields and Global Gathering and US’s Ultra and Electric Daisy Carnival. We’re not contesting. They did bring in Ministry of Sound, Hedkandi, Housexy, Krewella, and Chicane, among many more others, in the last two years. It’s every dance denizens’ festival fantasy.
Target date: December
Get updates here: https://www.facebook.com/ExceptionMusicFestival
