The main stage lineup was composed of 10 acts, from ena mori to Lola Amour – each one bringing a unique flavor to the festivities
MerSea – a play on the French words “mer” (sea) and “merci” (thanks) – served as the theme for the annual Fête De La Musique in the Philippines, now in its 29th iteration this 2023.
This year, the beloved music festival went beyond its signature offering of free live gigs across multiple venues across the country. It now also offered itself as a platform for raising awareness and gaining support for the conservation of Philippine oceans.
Fête teamed up with ScarletBox.io and non-governmental organization LAMAVE (Large Marine Vertebrate Research Institute Philippines) to raise funds for LAMAVE’s conservation advocacy, putting up for sale a collection of 1,000 NFT art pieces by 10 photographers. Each piece is meant to showcase the beauty of islands in the Philippines.
For those like me who missed out on the fun tradition of gig-hopping between Fête De La Musique’s “pocket stages” last June 17, this year’s main stage held Friday, June 23 at the Greenbelt 3 Park in Makati was definitely the place to be to make up for it.
The main stage lineup was composed of 10 acts, each one bringing a unique flavor of music to the festivities. They included alternative rock bands like of Mercury and SOS, whose sets had everyone jumping and waving their arms around, and the latter even throwing free merch into a crowd of enthusiastic fans.
Also present were experimental pop artist ena mori who delivered an emotional, high-energy set;
and Gabba, who brought his tastefully intricate electric guitar-driven instrumentals.
Lastly, a perfect way to round off the rainy evening was with everyone moving and singing along with headliners Cheats, Lola Amour, and Blaster and The Celestial Klownz.
Speaking of rain, the festivities came to a halt at the tail-end of second act Uncle Bob’s Funky Seven Club’s set because of a sudden heavy downpour.
After about two hours of the festival at a standstill – but with most of the crowd not budging from their spots – cheers erupted as the stage lights started flickering on again. Indeed, no amount of rain nor number of delays was going to put a damper on the event.
Boyband KINDRED was perhaps the act that felt the after-effects of the rain the most. They faced the challenge of bringing life back to the party and had to abandon their special plans of having a live band play with them. Despite this, however, the musical collective powered through and got the ball rolling (figuratively and quite literally, as they brought a basketball) once more with their choreographies and interactive onstage antics.
Thanks to the efforts of the organizers and the production team behind the 2023 Fête De La Musique main stage, the rest of the event personally felt like smooth sailing. The stellar performances from the artists helped elevate the evening even further, making the problems caused by the rain feel like a small blip by the end of the night. Lola Amour even jokingly apologized later on about how it must have rained because they recently released their single, “Raining In Manila.”
A minor detail I’d like to point out: I loved the fact that the organizers also put in the effort to create and post an updated schedule of the remaining artists’ sets on their socials. And guess what? They were able to follow it for the rest of the evening. I’ve been to other major events before where inclement weather also caused delays in the program, but this kind of respect for the audience was rare. Even if it might be a minor gesture for some, it’s something I believe the organizers of MerSea’s main stage should be commended for, as it showed they cared about their audience’s experience down to the smallest details.
All in all, I had a great time at this year’s main stage of Fête De La Musique. I saw some of my favorite artists live and even found new ones to listen to. And if my Fête De La Musique experience this year is any indicator, then you can bet this will definitely not be my last one.
Check out more photos from MerSea’s main stage below!
– Rappler.com