Day 313: FPAC 2015

Tinikling at FPAC 24

Tinikling at FPAC 24

This year’s Festival of Philippine Arts and Culture was a smaller, one-day event at the historic El Pueblo building next to Olvera Street. My wife and I had planned on going when it began at 10am, but ended up sleeping in and didn’t get there until lunch time.

Thankfully, the weather was much milder than a year ago, when the festival spanned two days during an unexpected heat wave in October.

Like last year, I wasn’t too impressed with the food; it was okay, but not representative of the best of Filipino fare. I’m sure there are too many laws and/or permits needed, but it would be great to have roaming food vendors selling taho or barbecue sticks like in the Philippines.

Still, kudos to all of the volunteers who make this event happen. It’s always a terrific celebration of the best of the Filipino arts and cultural community and this year was no different; it was a blast.

We didn’t catch the morning performances, but we saw a few of the afternoon acts after we had checked out all of the booths. Some of the acts we enjoyed: the Prime Note Ensemble, Odessa Kane, the SIPA dance crew, and other outstanding musicians and dancers.

My wife and I always love the traditional songs and performances and we were thrilled to hear our favorite love song “Dahil Sa Iyo” not once, but twice. The first was a traditional rendition and the second was part of a hula performance.

The best part of any Philippine cultural event was saved for last: the tinikling. Check out my short video of this traditional dance on my youtube channel.

Day 220: Yelp Street Team

I Love Yelp

I Love Yelp

I volunteered for the Yelp Street Team tonight, representing the brand at the 626 Night Market. It was a lot of fun handing out Yelp swag to the attendees and in my three hours at the Yelp Booth, I noticed one thing: people LOVE Yelp.

Actually, I noticed two things. In addition to the Yelp love fest, I saw how ginormous the 626 Night Market has grown. I was here in 2013 and thought it was big then, but tonight was nearly overwhelming. So much food, so many people, and plenty of good vibes. When you have an event centered around food, it seems to produce a less hostile crowd than, say, a Dodgers-Giants game in the middle of a heatwave.

Most people already had the Yelp app on their phones, so it was easy to get them to check-in and claim their free tote bag or drink koozie. My fellow street teamers Tiffany and Ruth gave out free high fives upon request, as did my stepdaughter, who helped out for an hour. We even posed for photos with a few people who made us feel like rock stars.

My favorite part of tonight? Talking to other enthusiastic users of Yelp. There were a lot of them, including several who stopped by the booth just to say how much they loved Yelp.

I told them I knew exactly how they felt.