This past Saturday we attended the 34th Barrio Fiesta sa London 2018 at Apps Court Farm near Walton-on-Thames. The weather was great (too hot actually) and thousands of people came to see famous Filipino celebrities perform. The celebrities we saw on the Saturday included Lassy Marquez (who was also the host), Inigo Pascual, Edward Barber, Maymay Entrata, KZ Tandingan and Yeng Constantino. Other than the music performances there was also plenty of delicious Filipino food to enjoy. It is definitely an event to have on your calendar if you are at all interested in Filipino culture. For more information about upcoming events like this you can visit the TFC Europe Facebook page.
This past weekend we attended the Summer Filipino Festival which was held in the town of Lancing on the south coast of England. Having been to the London Barrio Fiesta just a few weeks ago we were quite excited about attending another Filipino festival. Sadly our expectations were way too high.
This festival was TINY. Not just tiny compared to the Barrio Fiesta but tiny in every respect. It would probably take less than a minute to walk around the entire perimeter of stalls. Tiny can sometimes be cool but the festival was just so poorly organised that it ruined the whole experience. Firstly there is the parking.. or rather the lack thereof. There appeared to be no parking organised for the festival with the only parking area nearby being public parking for the beach. As this was a very hot day the parking was probably full from the morning already which left nowhere to park for festival goers. It resulting in driving around the residential area for ages trying to find a spot within walking distance of the festival.
The second major problem with the organisation came in the form of the on stage entertainment. We sat around all morning waiting until after 2:30pm for anything to happen on stage by which time we had packed up our stuff and gone to the beach. We later returned to watch the last few acts. Unfortunately this included the organiser of the festival getting on stage and singing which left one with the impression that maybe this festival is just his personal little party and an opportunity for him to (mistakenly) feel important. I don’t think he impressed anyone as he wasn’t very good.
A raffle was held over the two days of the festival for a 2010 Honda Jazz. Yes you read that right.. a 2010 car. Usually one would enter competitions to win a better car than you already have.. not a worse (and older) one which will no doubt have you soon spending more money on repairs than what it is worth.
The only good thing about the festival was the cultural dancing near the end. This showed off various cultural dances and outfits from across the Philippines and was very enjoyable. My favourite part of the performance came at the end when they surprised everyone with an energetic dance to the music “It’s more fun in the Philippines.” See the video below for this performance.
Overall the festival was a huge disappointment and we will probably not be attending again in the future.
During September we had our trip to the Philippines. It was something we were looking forward to for a long time and it was also my (Mario) first time visiting. Did it meet my expectations?
This past weekend we were planning on going to a Summer Filipino Fiesta but someone (not me) got the dates mixed up and when we got to the location realised that we were a week early! Since we were in the area we decided to make the best of the trip and spend the day in Brighton.
2019 was a very busy and stressful year for us. but also one that brought a lot of joy and success. Read on as we take a look back at the good and less good of 2019.
