7107 IMF team denies Napoles link to much-awaited music fest

MANILA, Philippines- The team behind the 7107 International Music Festival has denied that one of the children of alleged pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim Napoles is part of the most-anticipated event of the year.

In an email interview with Philstar.com, Tina Herrera and Mike Pio Roda clarified that they are the persons behind the music festival. Herrera is the executive producer of the festival with Mike is co-producer.

There were rumors that a son of Napoles is one of the producers of the festival.

The two IMF producers have been in the industry for several years.

Herrera is executive producer of the Philippine Fashion Week, which has been held twice a year for 17 years now. She also owns the media company “Style Media Asia,” which cover fashion weeks in New York, London, Milan, Paris and Berlin.

The same media company is behind the TV Shows Runway TV New York, Runway TV Europe, Runway TV Asia, Runway TV Men and Runway TV Couture, which all airs on ABS CBN Global’s TFC.”

Meanwhile, Roda has been in the field of music and events for 13 years and owns a talent management company named “Supreme Talent Management.”

The Festival

Roda said that the 7107 IMF, which will happen on February 22 and 23, aims to “create a community revolving around people’s love for music and for a global gathering in the Philippines.”

"We have so many world class events here in the Philippines and we just want to define ourselves apart from them by building a culture around the music. This two-day festival will be of all popular genres from rock, to rap, to electronica with multiple stages," he said.

The two-day festival will run from noon to midnight for each day.

Herrera said that “at least 10 international artists and 30 local artists” will participate in the festival. Roda said that the artists were chosen “based on the Philippine’s musical tastes and from those international artists who wanted to come.”

Leading the 10 international artists is the rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers, which Roda said was “an easy choice.”

Large crowd

Expecting a large crowd for the two-day special, the 7107 IMF team has asked an international production team from Los Angeles, California to arrange the whole production.

Roda said that the production team has done project for the “Super Bowl Half Time Show, the Oscars, the Grammy's, Long Beach Grand Prix, the Electric Daisy Carnival, Coachella, Ultra Music Festival Miami, Nocturnal-Beyond-White Wonderland, Lollapalooza, Tomorrow World."

Aside from the local music fans, the festival is expected to attract foreign fans from Qatar, Singapore, Spain, Taiwan, Thailand, United States, Australia, China, Germany, Indonesia, Korea, Hong Kong and United Kingdom.

'Yolanda'

With the timing of the event, Herrera said that the team has started efforts to help the victims of Super Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) in the Visayas.

“I'm happy to get our music festival project involved in the efforts,” she said. “Let 7107 International Music Festival be a reminder to our countrymen that music moves, and help is on the way.

“We have many boat rebuilding projects, home rebuilding projects, agriculture rehabilitation and medical missions in the pipeline and look forward to supporting the affected areas of Typhoon Haiyan.”