How we met – Mario version (video)

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.