Against a clean night sky stippled with stars, colored lights dance on spindly palm trees while an eclectic play list happily echoes across a the best natural amphitheater you’ve ever heard. It’s the Malasimbo Music and Arts festival where the aural and visual conspire to conjure an atmosphere conducive to serious grooving.
Down here at Big La Laguna, the home of Scandi Divers and Campbell’s Beach Resort, we eagerly anticipate the early March event. This is the fifth time Mount Malasimbo has summoned its kaleidoscope of artists, musicians, DJ’s, travel-set hipsters, Pinoy locals, Asean cognicenti and a handful of very fortunate vacationers and divers to Mount Malasimbo.
Together with other forward-thinking music confabs like the Rainforest World Music Festival in Kuchin, Malaysia or Music Matters Live in Singapore; the Philippines’ music festival is making some serious noise both as a tremendous venue for established and emergent talent and as a showcase for Oriental Mindoro’s natural beauty and outdoor attractions: scuba diving (very close to our hearts), snorkeling, biking, hiking and island hopping.
Each year Malasimbo has expanded and improved the event. Last year, with Robert Glaspar headlining the show, the event added cashless payment for food and drink inside the venue. This year with This year the event organizers added a second event called Lights and Dance focusing on dance and Lightshow featuring James Brown’s former band leader Fred Wesley, Australia’s Tom Thum and reggae giant Bob Marley’s son, Ky-Mani Marley.
Beyond the music and art, what makes the festival great is that the event is dedicated the preservation of the indigenous Mangyan villages and eco-protection of Mindoro Oriental through its partnership with the French organization Noe’ Conservation.
Sound good? Then start planning early to join Malasimbo in early March, 2016 and stay with us at Scandi or Campbell’s to catch a few dives during the day and head up the mountain for a spectacular music show at night.