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Wednesday, July 01, 2015

The #FeteIndie2015 Experience

07/01/2015 08:24:33 AM


All my life I have been wanting to watch a big-time music-related event called Fête dela Musique. Originally known as festivity in Paris in 1982, the Fête—or World Music Day—has made its way to other parts of the globe, including the Philippines in 1994.

And now, on its 21st year, Fête dela Musique is still called by many as one of the “go-to” gatherings in the music industry. No wonder, and no doubt about it since a lot of musicians in different genres used to swing by to perform sets of their tunes in front of hundreds—and even thousands—of attendants inside the venue.

I could even remember that the FDLM once had Ortigas as its stage.

Well, fast-forward to 2015. Fête dela Musique were staged at 21 venues—including the concluding main stage in Intramuros, City of Manila. The rest, though, were situated at Makati City, where Greenbelt 5 and A-Venue housed the fete's two main stage; while the rest are pocket stages offering different genres and various lineups.

If you asked me though, I stormed by the independent music stage. Not just because I am affiliated with its organizing production group, but on a personal note, I always find the independent music quite interesting. Let's face it: these are the works which you rarely (if not) heard much on the radio, or seen on television; and if there's one place where they used to make waves—it's that one 3-letter word called 'gig.'(Of course, aside from the fact that there's YouTube, Soundcloud, Amplify.PH, etc.)

So I was at the venue by around 1:00 PM, or barely two hours before the show itself. Set-up time for the organizers and sponsors.

The show started around 3:15 PM, and everyone—especially the few ones who dropped by during that early mid-afternoon of Saturday—knows they will be up for a long ride. Yes! (In fact, it was a half-day run of nothing but awesome music!)

Rap artist Curtismith formally kicked off the party, followed by the rock band Pitik and another rapper by the name of Ninno. Also, the artists whom performed during the afternoon stretch were The Raes, The Strangeness, and Austin; while Fools and Foes kicked off the evening set as B. P. Valenzuela, Lions and Acrobats, and The Purplechickens followed suit. And just when everyone thought the rainy weather will weather the storm inside 12 monkeys (literally), Farewell Fair Weather—fresh from performing in Singapore along with BP and two other Filipino artists—rocked the crowd and showed the reason why they were the best fusion musicians the Philippines has to offer right now.

And what's more is that Flying Ipis, Brisom, We Are Imaginary, Cinema Explosion, Tom's Story, and Oh, Flamingo! kept to rocking vibe all throughout the evening as if this is the weekend prime time slot (mind you, the venue's STILL jam-packed by around midnight). And just when you thought the rockers will end #FeteIndie2015 on a high note, world music group Dayaw was there to cap them all by around 1:30 in the morning.

But, like that TV Shopping advertisement goes... “wait, there's more!” as the event hosts Micah Romey, Elle Centeno and Mario Urrutia have been blurting “there's a surprise band” all night long. And true enough, we lived to the promise—Autotelic, one of the popular bands in the present indie scene, came over and took over the stage! Say, they also rocked the main stage—which is located just blocks away from Century Mall.

Fifteen minutes before 3:00 AM, and for all of us there, is "wrapping" up time. However, I can still feel the atmosphere there and then—even when we already vacated the venue by around 3:50 AM.

Imagine this: for almost 12 hours, there were total on 19 bands played their sets of music, in front of close to two thousand people inside the music hall.

While in between, bags from Brattpack were also raffled to the audience, while free copies of FHM Magazine were also served as an instant giveaways to everyone who dropped by. Also, Smart Bro offered two Gold tickets for the Passion Pit concert.

Along the way, I also met the other musicians and personalities such as Martin Andanar. Yes, the TV5 news anchor who also heads News5Everywhere and the independent podcast creator named Podcast.PH.

Props to all the hardworking men and women of 12 Monkeys, NDFY.me, Vandals on the Wall, and DocDef Productions for making this event very, very, very possible!

Also, I'd like to give my shoutouts to Martin's Podcast.PH team Deah Ricacho and Benjie Felipe; as well as to some of my friends who dropped by at the event Christian and Joyce (Seriously, I never know you were there until who slapped my back. LOL!), and also Kerstin of Para Sa Sining Productions (Yes, I'll be there on your next event. Sorry I forgot your lady companion's name though, as much as I want to include in my shoutouts here). And last—but definitely not the least—to Lihterature for giving me a break in photography and videography. Looking froward to learn more form you soon!

It was definitely an awesome night for music. Cheers to all of us!

B.P. Valenzuela
Flying Ipis
Brisom
Fools and Foes
Tom's Story
We Are Imaginary
Dayaw

The Purplechickens
Autotelic
Oh, Flamingo!
Farewell Fair Weather
Lions and Acrobats


The Raes
Ninno
Check out my Flickr account and my Facebook page for more of the #FeteIndie2015 photos!

Author: slickmaster | ©2015 september twenty-eight productions

10 comments:

  1. This sounds fun. A friend of mine has a group(band) who does indie music. They also have night gigs around BF Paranaque. Will tell him about this. Thanks!

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    1. Say, is this around X278/Apache (well, I was here last Saturday evening though) or at the Checkpoint bar?

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  2. 12 hours, 19 bands, a large crowd and giveaways sound like a lot of fun! :)

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  3. It sure looks like a whole lot of fun! :)

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  4. hey, you take really good shots! nice! this looks like a fun event!

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  5. My husband would enjoy watching this! I will tell him about this.

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  6. I wasn't able to come and see the bands but feedback has been awesome. Kudos to the organizers especially to Glen of NDFY.me! \m/

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    1. It was—er, is STILL—indeed awesome (nah, I still had some bits of hangover) to witness everything from start to finish. Glen, Doc, and Ian must be really happy with the turnout (as well as us part of the organizing staff there).

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  7. Sounds fun! I don't know the bands here but I can imagine they made the evening one to remember.

    Thanks for sharing the music!

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