2008 San Miguel Oktoberfest, Siyento Beinte Na!

September 8, 2008

 

 

It was a lucky Friday for me and Peter as we were given Media passes by Juned to cover the opening of the longest Oktoberfest in Philippine History (Thanks, Juned!). Yes, Oktoberfest is now running for 120 days all over the country, which started last Friday, September 5, 2008. The opening was held not just in Metro Manila but was simultaneously celebrated in Olongapo, Zambales; Sta. Rosa, Laguna; Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu; and in Davao City. That’s gonna be 120 days of fun, music and beer drinking!!! Woohoo!!!

 

 

San Miguel even came up with a special brew just for this occasion. I’m telling you, I’m not a beer drinker (I prefer wine and vodka) but with the Oktoberfest beer, man, I might just consider replacing all my other alcohol collection. It’s like pure malt with a bit of a twist. It’s just so tasty. Daaayyymmm!  

 

 

 

Anyway, Peter and I went to San Miguel Ave., in Ortigas at around 3pm last Friday to make sure that we can get our passes in time and to cover as many happenings as possible. We got a bit lost at first . We didn’t know where to go. The venue stretched all the way from the rear of Mega Mall Building B, looped around Julio Vargas then turned in to San Miguel Ave., and eventually ended somewhere near Shaw. Whew!!! Good thing Juned met us at Mcdonald’s in El Pueblo and we were finally able to find the right entrance. But before we did, we checked out this huge tent built right across the venue. Since we were wearing our media passes anyway, no security check was needed. Woopee! As it turned out, that’s where the special Oktoberfest beer was going to be introduced. It’s not commercially sold yet and will only be sold for the duration of the Oktoberfest. So for those who wanted to have a taste of it, that was the right place to go to.

 

 

 

 

Next stop was inside the venue.It was just 4:30 pm when we went in. We saw a lot of kids and punks dressed amazingly for the street dance and marching band competitions. Looking at them got me interested so Peter and I watched the whole thing. They were so awesome! Wow!

 

 

 

They’re just kids but their moves were comparable to professional dancers we see on TV. The choreography was just so captivating and the choice of their music was so pumpin’! I couldn’t help but  sway to their  beat as we watched them. If before I see them as “jologs”, after watching them perform, I have nothing but pure admiration for them. It also just brings back so many memories of my own youth… Ahhhhh… high school life, oh my high school life. It’s fun to be so young and active!

 

 

 

 

Filipinos are really very talented. It doesn’t matter whether you’re yagit, jologs or conio. If you’ve got talent, show it! DJ Monica of NU 107 hosted the series of competitions and I can tell that even she was amazed at those kids. The only sad thing about  it was that they announced the winners after the whole opening event, which meant, those kids probably waited until 5am the following morning just to know who won. Tsk, tsk. Poor kids. If you went to Oktoberfest late that Friday night, they were the punks you saw scattered along the streets. They’re tired, hungry  and just wanted to go home. But they had to stay. I hope every group got the prizes they deserved.

 

 

Then 6:30 pm kicked in. The whole place was smelling like barbeque as the longest bar in history prepared food and drinks for the patrons who were starting to fill up the place.

 

 

 

By then, the venue pretty much looked like a jampacked carnival. There were game booths, human statues and folks peddling chichiria and candies. Peter and I walked the whole stretch of it. They were trying to get the Guiness book of World Record for the longest bar. And with 605.3 meters, they did! They have beaten  the current 240 meters record of the one in Taiwan. Plus, they were also attempting to best the current 13,500 beer drinkers who raised ther glasses for a toast in Las Vegas, Nevada. I’m not sure if they did beat them since we only stayed until 2am but still…Wow! This is indeed one Philippine historical event in the making. We were really  glad to have witnessed most of it.

 

 

 

Oh by the way, there’s this candy being introduced to the market. It’s called GO! GO! EXTREME and taking one of those is equivalent to drinking 1/2 cup of coffee. Peter and I tried it and I guess it worked. By then, I was already more than 24 hours awake, haven’t had anything to eat yet and was running on pure adrenaline and water. At 7 pm or so, Peter and I went to the media section where a buffet was prepared for us. Yesss!!! I was so hungry, everything tasted doubly delicious. We had ensalada, spicy sisig, sweet roasted ribs, sweet & sour chicken and rice. There’s free bottled water too. *Burp*.

 

 

From the media section, we can already see people trying to get in the golden section where people who bought the P1500 gold ticket were to be seated. I saw people from GMA 7 who were not allowed to enter by the bouncers. To think their IDs read MEDIA GMA. That got me alarmed. So Peter went to the organizers just to make sure. Afterwards, he went back to me, pulled my hands and lead me to the direction of the golden section. And voila, we were allowed entry! While the rest of the MEDIA GMA ID holders were left outside. WOW. Our IDs just read MEDIA. So our media IDs trumped those of the networks. Bloggers trumped networkers. Hehehe. That made my night. Hahaha!

 

 

Overtone

 

Taken by Cars

 

 Out of Body Special

 

  Bloomfields

 

But of course, as the evening progressed and as more and more people milled about, anyone with any kind of media  pass eventually got in. With Pinoy bands like OVERTONE, TAKEN BY CARS, RIVERMAYA, BLOOMFIELDS & OUT OF BODY SPECIAL playing the first part of the night, I guess even the bouncers could no longer stop the media people from asserting their rights to cover such a grand event.

 

 

Rivermaya

 

 

And then Third Eye Blind came on stage at around 12 midninght. They are the American alternative band that popularized songs like Semi-Charmed Life, Losing a Whole Year, Jumper & Never Let You Go to name a few.That really made the crowd go wild! After all, they’re the reason why so many people went to this event in the first place.

 

 

  

 

     

But my favorite that night was Rivermaya’s performance. I’m not so abreast with the new bands these days. I knew Bamboo used to be their vocalist and I knew Rico Blanco left. But I didn’t know how good their new vocalist is. Well, my  verdict for Jayson Fernandez is: What a raw, hot voice you got there, dude! You so deserved to take over the mic. I really went a bit wild as they sang their old songs like 214, Ulan, Elesi, Himala, Awit ng Kabataan, Umaaraw Umuulan & Liwanag. They also sang Oktoberfest’s theme as fireworks were displayed in the horizon.

 

  

 

 

Derek Ramsey co-hosted the concert with Monica. There were games in between as the performing band prepared their instruments.It was a pretty wild night.  And when 3eB finally ended their set, the crowd clamored for more. After several minutes of chanting, lead vocalist Stephan Jenkins came out on stage followed by the rest of the band and sang two more songs. Finally, Brad Hargreave, the drummer, threw his drum sticks to the crowd which meant, even if the people shouted for more, there’s no way they’d be able to play without his sticks. Hahaha. Clever.

 

  

L: Me & my good friend Migs; R: Peter and his good ftiend Mico Marco

 

Getting cozy with Fritz

Peter and I left after that. We went to the tent across the venue and had one more Oktoberfest beer before finally calling it a night.

 

  

 

There were still other bands who played like Sponge Cola, The Dawn & Sugarfree. I pity them coz most of the crowd were gone by then. If only Bloomfields didn’t take a lot of time during their set, maybe the other bands could’ve played sooner. Oh well. It was still one ultrafantastic night! We saw some of our friends  and totally enjoyed the music.

 

San Miguel Beer Babes

 

It was nice seeing everything right in front of you. Even if we didn’t see the Kitty Girls gyrate and witnessed Maureen Larrazabal’s big boobies, it was still one helluvah night…to think the pahtee just started. Cheers to 112 days more! 

 ~~~oOo~~~

Here are some videos we took…

 

3Eb - Semi Charmed Life

 

3eB - Jumper

 

3eB - Never Let You Go

 

3eb - Can I Graduate

 

Rivermaya - Elesi

 

Rivermaya - Liwanag

 

Umaaraw umuulan

 

Awit ng Kabataan

 

Riveremaya - 214

 

Bloomfields - Come Together