Step into Wanderland

MANILA, Philippines - On May 17th, this year’s Wanderland Music Festival happened, bringing in more foreign acts this time around. Headlining Wanderland 2014 was The Drums, from Brooklyn, New York. The festival lasted for more than 12 hours, with the first act, Chocolate Grass, playing at 12 noon. Under the heat at the Globe Circuit Events Ground, festival-goers saw several other local acts, Brisom, Techy Romantics, The Ransom Collective, and Franco, as well as foreign artists like Australia’s Woody Pitney and the UK’s Lucy Rose.

Unlike most festivals, Wanderland has a few game booths for which you can buy tokens to play for tickets, which you can exchange for their mascot plushies and other prizes. There was a wide array of food and drink booths, as well as a lounge by Globe, a co-presentor, and other activities like a carousel by the River Island booth. Toward the back of the field were artists like JP Cuison, Anjo Bolardo, and Dee Jae Pa’este, doing live art installations well into the last few moments of daylight. The venue was a perfect place for this event, too, housing the thousands of people comfortably, despite the heat. The Metro Manila skyline looked really pretty from there, too.

The sun set as The Paper Kites played, signaling the latter half of the festival. The Last Dinosaurs, who already visited Manila last year, snuck in a cover of The Strokes’s “What Ever Happened” in their set, followed by the local superband, Wonderful All Stars, a collaboration of artists Radioactive Sago Project, Enrique “Inky” De Dios, Kat Agarrado of SinoSikat?, Taken by Cars’ Sarah Marco, and DJ Mars Miranda.

After a long soundcheck, The Royal Concept, a dance pop group from Stockholm, Sweden, took the stage and wooed the crowd, whipping them into a frenzy. Architecture in Helsinki performed next, capturing everyone with their visual and musical playfulness. The Drums played last, way after midnight, performing way into the wee hours of the morning to a tired but visibly eager throng of fans. Frontman Jonny Pierce’s dancing is infectious, something of a trademark of his that doesn’t fail to be remarked upon.

Karpos Multimedia Inc. is proving to be a force to be reckoned with, constantly bringing in Class A acts from all over the Philippines and all over the world, all playing together. With shows by Nada Surf, The Temper Trap, Phoenix, and The Drums under their belt—and one by Bombay Bicycle Club in the near future—one can only hope for more good things from this prod group. I’m very excited for what they have in store for the next Wanderland. This is way too good of a tradition not to do annually.