The SlickMaster's Files: The Scene Around: Tagaytay Art Beat

9/27/2015 9:03:15 AM

The view from up here at the Roof Deck!

For once, I never thought I will be dropping by Tagaytay City once again. It’s been like 11 or 12 years since the last time I’ve been into that place. And the very last time I’ve been there is at the famous People’s Park in the Sky—once known as Palace in the Sky during the Marcos regime—the urban park sitting atop of Mount Gonzales.

Until a week ago, Docdef Productions and Museo Orlina teamed up to establish a one day-long affair with music and arts called Tagatay Art Beat.

One of the event's posters (Photo credits: Docdef Productions' Facebook page)

Barely a month in the making, Tagaytay Art Beat was a one-time-big-time event in-the-making with having two preview shows held at Brewery at the Palace, sellout ticket sales, and a sudden bunch of announcements from the media sponsors.

Aside from hype, the numbers were quite big to fit into a 10-hour festivity: 16 musicians, 14 art exhibits, two live mural paintings, and 1,379 people in attendance. (The exhibit part though will run until October 2, 2015.)

The show originally scheduled to start at 4:00 PM, but it was only thirty minutes later when hosts Micah Romey and Marj Rojas formally opened Tagaytay Art Beat with crooner Niki Colet gracing the musical part. It was the first time I saw her performing in a full-bands setup.

Niki Colet

Paolo Mallari

Austin

Paolo Mallari and Austin came next on stage during the latter hour of afternoon, while Banna Harbera graced the cool evening as people started to fill up the venue.

Reese Lansangan delivered some cleverly tunes with Autotelic’s Josh Villena on the side; while Fools and Foes also came to play with their indie folk tracks; and Anj Florendo and her band crooned with some of her heavily emotionally-driven ballads.

Banna Harbera

Reese Lansangan

Fools and Foes

Anj Florendo

As the witty and angst tunes graced the evening, more of the heavyweight stuff came along the way as SUD, The Ransom Collective, Bullet Dumas, Farewell Fair Weather, Tom's Story, Autotelic and Jensen and the Flips sent everyone in their dancing selves. Talk about having a standing room only crowd where people either do head-bump to the beat, having mini-moshpit parties, while taking snapshots of memories at the same time.

SUD

The Ransom Collective

Bullet Dumas

Farewell Fair Weather

Autotelic

While Jensen Gomez and company provided some sexy-time music, Miles Bondoc and his band called MilesExperience followed suit with a set of their own in front of their solid followers—some of them even came from their Silakbo single launch at Route 196 a night before.

Jensen and the Flips

MilesExperience

Dayaw

World music group Dayaw capped the Woodstock-like event at around two in the morning.

And just like on every Docdef gig, some fans and even musicians stayed up until 3:30-ish in the morning and ponder on what had been an epic night for independent music scene.

Also during the evening, renowned glass artist Ramon Orlina spoke grateful words to everyone who made Tagaytay Art Beat possible. Event curators Ning Orlina and JB Balaquit also took the stage and delivered their ‘thank you’ speeches as well; with the latter announcing the Docdef Productions’ 100th gig to be slated soon at Flow House Manila.

Despite having network connectivity problems though, Tagaytay Art Beat became part of the Philippine Twitter trends on Sunday morning; seeing that one reached the fourth spot at around 7:14 AM was a very heart-melting part. Perhaps I can tell that a lot of fans, who just then-came home from Tagaytay, expressed their sweet nothings about the event.

Screenshot from Philippine Trends (obtained by Ning Ning Orlina; photo credits: Facebook)

And is there anything we can say more, especially when a lot of people even claimed the sets of SUD, Autotelic, and Jensen and the Flips were among the standouts for Tagaytay Art Beat? In addition, some were even fascinated on how songwriters like Reese Lansangan and Bullet Dumas were witty enough to create such craft; as well as Niki Colet and Anj Florendo on their #hugot tracks. Or the likes of Ransom Collective, Miles Expereience and even Dayaw kept the loud vibe inside the venue. And the other bands as well; and mind you: even Kim Hue Jin and Ethan Muriel proved their chemistry as the lead-bass guitar tandem in Farewell Fair Weather. (Well, that's all based on both my observations in stage and online as we read the aftermath postings.)

As a fan, Tagaytay Art Beat was a heck-of-an-event, indeed proving that the music scene in our country was very much alive in contrast from all badmouths had been yammering about. Plus the fact that visual arts is one of the things we rarely appreciate.

However, on the other side, it's nice to be part of this one. Thanks JB, Justin Villanueva (Brainsoup Productions), Lih Ocampo, and the entire production crew of Docdef Productions and Museo Orlina. It’s an honor and privilege to be one of your hardworking men and women pool.

Also, yours truly would like to thank my colleague at work Celine Tiu for the camera I used for Art Beat (aside from my mobile phone), and Myrel Victoria Villa for helping me out on taking some shots.

You can check out more of the photos from my Flickr page, as well as from Gab Pili’s Facebook page, or just check out the hashtag #TagaytayArtBeat on your favorite social media sites for more!