Manila Paragon

MNL, PH

[manilaparagon-blog]

RAKRAKAN FESTIVAL 2017: OPM AGAINST DRUGS | 14 January 2017

Awesome is an understatement. You have to look for a word more solid than rock to define this once in a lifetime event.

This year's Rakrakan Festival featured 100 bands in 5 stages- namely Indie, Move, Groove, Mosh, and Slam stage. It sounded a little impossible but you had to see it to believe it. If you prefer one kind of music, you would have been very pleased staying in the stage of your choice; but if you are a listener of a variety of music, this event would have not been very easy for you only because you wouldn't be able to stand being in one place. You'd wish you'd multiply and scatter in the venue. All the bands were too great it would tear you apart not to hear all of them, and it would literally tear you trying to listen to two stages at once but perhaps that's the best part of it. You know you rocked so hard when you went home exhausted but ecstatic.

The festival did not only bring music to us. It also jammed art and skate in one place until our hearts bled of euphoria. Not to mention the long line for the merch.

Rakrakan is not for the faint-hearted. It is for the tough men and women of all generations. It is for the children of rock n' roll. To be one with those who enjoy it, you have to live in the moment as well.

[manilaparagon-blog]

COLOR MANILA RUN | 8 January 2017

Color Manila is on their 5th year this 2017. As a color run virgin, you wouldn't expect anything but fun with colors-a-plenty thrown at you while running (or in some cases, walking). You're in luck, though, because this event gives you more than you can expect.

The gunstart for 10k run was fired at 6am (and a different time for 3k, 5k, and 21k run) but the fun already started at 4am during the assembly time. After leaving their baggage to their respective counters, runners can have their pictures taken in the photo booth (using their own phones or cameras, because the photographers didn't turn on their equipment until after the run), take a slide with the kids, warm up, buy some Color Manila merchandise, or play easy games and win big prizes.

100plus gives you one of their products for each of the three hoops you successfully shoot in a bottle- a sure win if you focus, and a sure thirst clencher if you win. Brooks' game, on the other hand, was more challenging but it's just fair enough if you ask everyone. It's just beer pong without the beer. You shoot one ball in a cup and you win a five hundred-peso (P500) discount on any regular-priced Brooks running footwear, two to win chocolates, and five to win a pair of shoes of your size.

In the beginning, the finish line seemed to be too far and the run too long; but each time a color station catches your eyes, you start to run faster and get more adrenalized in the thought of bright colors being splashed to your body. It's artistic and athletic at once, and a sense of achievement gets to you every time. Besides, everyone in the event keeps motivating you to move forward- from the #runhappy and instagram worthy photo booths of each station to the tarpaulins that ask you to "run your heart out" and statements of the like.

After reaching the finish line, the run ends but the fun continues. A mini concert full of vibrant hues and entertaining music was prepared to congratulate each and everyone for outdoing themselves and to welcome the rest of the year with a bang.