Fete de la Musique turns 25

BACK for its landmark 25th year, Fete de la Musique, once again brings together “the best of the best in the local music scene,” with more than 50 pocket stages and nine main stages scattered across eight cities in the country.

“2019 is a big year for Fete de la Musique and we wanted to make sure that this year’s event will be a special one,” Jean-Pierre Dumont, executive director of Alliance Française de Manille, was quoted as saying in a press release.

The famed “music everywhere and concert nowhere” festival will feature about 4,000 artists performing over four days. The participating artists include Ebe Dancel, Dayaw, Ang Bandang Shirley, Ransom Collective, and Urbandub.

The festival, also called “World Music Day,” was created in 1982 by France’s then-Minister of Culture Jack Lang and was envisioned as a free concert on the streets. It is currently celebrated in more than 700 cities in 120 countries every year.

This year, the Philippine version of the festival will kick off on June 15 with pre-Fete parties held simultaneously at the KMC Skydeck in Bonifacio Global City, Taguig; Salon de Ning of The Peninsula Manila Hotel, Makati; and the Rizal Open-Air Auditorium in Luneta Park, Manila.

Among the artists performing during the pre-Fete parties will be Dong Abay and Mojoffly at the Rizal Open-Air Auditorium, Butta B and Coox Moreno at the KMC Skydeck. Meanwhile, Salon de Ning will feature a “Rockeoke” stage.

The festival’s main stages will have performances on June 22 and 28, while the performances at the provincial stages — in Baguio, Laguna, Batangas, Pampanga, Bulacan and Palawan — will commence on June 29.

On June 22, the festival’s Main Makati stages will be at the A Venue Open Parking area and at Greenbelt 3 Park. Performances at both main stages will start at 4 p.m. Artists there will include Autotelic, Apartel, and Itchyworms.

The A Venue stage will also host a multi-genre 25-minute production “that pays homage to the 25 years of Fete de la Musique in the Philippines and showcasing the plethora of talents and musical styles [in the country],” said Giselle Tomimbang, managing partner of B-Side Productions, during a press conference on the festival on June 4 at the Alliance Française de Manille in Makati.

There will also be over 50 pocket stages focusing on diverse music genres — there will be an acoustic stage, a busking stage, a spoken word stage, a rock stage, and a bedroom beats stage, among others.

Another main stage will be set up on June 28 at the Puerto Real Gardens in Intramuros, Manila City with performances by The Vowels, Sandwich, Juan Karlos, among others. It will also have an all-female French-Filipino medley led by Radha, Vanessa Monot, and Fatima Palma-Loo, among others.

Those who intend to attend the festival are encouraged to download the FetePH mobile app (for Android phones) to get the festival’s complete schedule and to join the “#FeteStories” social media contest where they will have to upload a 10-second video of their experience of the festival. The top prize is a trip for two to France.

The festival’s schedule can also be viewed on the festival’s Facebook page. — Zsarlene B. Chua