
It was a confluence of conditions that made Wanderland’s sophomore effort a triumphant repeat performance. The festival, as true as it was last year, definitely gives a different vibe from Summer Slam, Bazooka Rocks, Malasimbo, and even 7107.
Say what you want about Metro Manila weather, but I could not imagine Wanderland being scheduled in any other time of year. People were at their most comfortable festive get ups: their shorts, their skirts, flower crowns, tank tops, cotton everything, flower crowns, sunglasses, I-wish-I-was-in-Coachella costumes, flower crowns. Karpos brought the party favors with the carnival staples, the carousel, that inflatable thingamajig with the velcro wall, live art sessions. And booze and food. Amenities in Circuit were topnotch. It is perhaps the best and appropriately stocked locally-produced music festival I’ve gone to. Wanderland certainly did a great job recognizing and acknowledging its audience judging by the effort it put into field logistics alone.



Wanderland’s distinct vibe is most probably due to the music the festival showcases. In the most simplistic and convenient of terms, blurted out by no other than Lourd de Veyra on stage: hipster. It is the music, the culture, the clothes, the attitude, the entire shebang the term imbibes, incurs, and inspires. Be it as it may, the lineup runs a gamut of musical styles diverse enough to avoid monotony but consistent enough tug a unifying thread binding all of them. All of them except maybe for Franco. It is always great to see them perform on stage, so I would assume the organizers threw them into the fray as a wild card to keep things interesting. And it was.
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