Fusion Festival Celebrates Filipino Youth, Local Music, and 'Bayanihan'

With Filipino music at its heart, “Fusion 2023: The Philippine Music Festival” is all about local acts with international-caliber talent. Happening on May 27 at the CCP Open Grounds in Pasay, the event bill is all Filipino from top to bottom, with acts that capture the current trap/R&B zeitgeist and bands that hark back to the rock-dominated scene of the early 2000s.

Glady Basinillo, CEO and founder of Intersections and Praxis, agencies in the crossroads of media and experience, may have been playing the humble card when she said, “We know Fusion is a drop in an ocean of other music events.” Nothing else on the local concert calendar has anything like the lineup at Fusion.

Bamboo, 6cyclemind, Shanti Dope, and Gloc-9 are the event’s headliners, as fitting of their status as few of the biggest national acts of the last 20 years. But, it’s very clear who this event is for: millennials and Gen Zs.

R&B princess Denise Julia and local trapper Al James are certified Spotify favorites, while Lola Amour, Ben&Ben and Hey, June! will provide the easy rock tunes that are a mainstay of the local radio scene. Adie, KZ Tandingan, Morisette, and Arthur Nery are on crooner duties, belting the sweet serenades.

For the supporting act, Fusion has called on college bands to show their raw talent in the “Fusion School Tour and FreeJam: The Fusion Collegiate Battle of the Bands.” The winning band will have the chance to perform on the main stage.

The event organizers also enlisted the help of student organizations to help run the festival, calling them Fusion Squads.

The spirit of Bayanihan is alive and well in the Fusion Music Festival, as the whole shindig is touted as a collective victory for local musical acts, brands, universities, media agencies.

Tickets (ranging from P1,000 to P7,000) are available online on SM Tickets, as well as its ticket outlets in SM Malls nationwide. For more information about the event, visit Fusion’s Facebook page.