one foggy evening
one foggy evening
UP Fair 2009. Loverage: Break the Curse [February 13, 2009 Friday]
So I told Mama, I changed my mind. Instead of going to the UP Fair, I’d rather stay at the dormitory and study for my accounting exam. I wasn’t able to find company anyway. My old friends already had commitments with their classmates/friends/roommates/boyfriends. So, what the hell? There’s still a next time..
But then again, I wouldn’t want to trade my concert experience, which is by the way very cheap for an all night jamming with OPM bands, for my acads.@_@ And it’s Friday, I deserve a little night out. So, I decided to go and ask my cousins to come with me. I volunteered to pay the tickets. They wanted to go so, I’m good. I can go to the concert accompanied. My cousins still has work so they’re going to be late. Ate Hanna asked me to come with her already and wait for my cousins at Sunken Garden.
The line was unimaginable. It reached the hall of fame pathway across the PHAN and curved all the way down to the main library and to the long stretch of College of Engineering.. I am not exaggerating. It’s like enrollment all over again. I thought we wouldn’t be able to get in before midnight. But, fortunately, we were able to make it even before the popular bands started performing.
When my cousins arrived, I couldn’t leave my spot because I was almost in front of the stage. So, I texted them to just meet with their batchmates which happpened to be watching the concert too and I’ll be on my own. Besides, there was already a massive crowd at the back composing of what they call the “Jumping Jologs” or JJs. They are the ones who wear black, red or white clothes, some of them wearing masks and capes, the infamous hairstyles and most of all gothic make-ups. I dare call them adik if you don’t mind me saying.
Anyway, these JJs were extremely and unsolicitedly disturbing the concert. They began throwing pet bottles with each other when Razorback and De Lara were performing. They were chanting and dancing unnerved with the people cursing at them. I have nothing against these people (most of them are still kids!). It’s just that some of us (that includes me) find it a little uncomfortable having them in our event. And it’s UP Fair. It’s supposed to be for UP Students only. So anyways, few other bands performed. The highlights of the concert for me were Giniling Festival, De Lara, Kjwan, Kitchie Nadal and Bamboo.
Few minutes before midnight of the Friday the 13th, the concert was suddenly commanded to stop temporarily. The reason was a lot more people were still outside the Fair arena, unfliching to enter and join the audience. While others were still lining up in the ticket booth. Apparently, the’re no sufficient space inside so they were asked to wait until the crowd moderates. But, they were too eager and some other outsiders were already pushing the fence. I decided to go home right after the fireworks display and after Bamboo had performed. Things were getting really intense and I could tell that some performers were already annoyed because of the nuisance. Give’em a break! They are also entitled with a behaved audience.
I arrived at the dormitory at 1 am. I still wanted to go back and finish what I’ve started. You know the feeling when you wanted something so badly and you’ve waited a whole year for it, but you wouldn’t be able to savor it to its last drop? Well, that’s how I felt. There were still amazing bands like Moonstar 88, Mayonnaise, etc yet to perform.
An hour or so after, dorm people were arriving. They told us that there has been a riot on-going at the Sunken Garden. A couple of UP DIliman Police officers were already harmed and some Quezon police has took part in. One police has a major damage in his head and is still in critical condition.
So, so much for my anticipation. I am still lucky I was able to get back before the discourse even started. I wouldn’t know what to do if I got caught in between. Thank God!
The day after, Saturday Feb. 14, I sat willfully in my study zone, accounting book and a pile of scratchpaper for my solutions in the table. I’m betting this event will not be forgotten so easily. The following week, I heard some of my classmates debating on who to blame. Some were already naming names. Even I had started thinking how could such a horrible thing happened. I just couldn’t imagine how the performers would think about it. Would they even care? I just hope that they wouldn’t resort to concluding that UP students are not civilized people just because of a mere, self-explanatory and unwanted mistake happened.
Enclosure: To anybody who happened to read this blog, please spare me my mother’s tongue-lashing castigation. She has no idea I ever ended up going to the Fair ^_^
