TFC's rousing '15th'

Redwood City, CA — ABS-CBN North America capped last Sept. 20 the year-long celebration of TFC’s 15th anniversary the way it started it: With record attendance, a showcase of the best in Filipino talent and a testament to the Kapamilya spirit.

After drawing a crowd of 7,000 to Ontario Convention Center in the anniversary kick-off celebration last year, One Kapamilya Go (OK Go) attracted last Sunday almost 10,000 to the Redwood Amphitheater and Picnic Pavilion of California’s Great America in Santa Clara. According to a top official from the Northern California’s premier theme park, the last time they’ve seen such an attendance to a show in their park was 15 years ago.

As early as seven in the morning, three hours before gates opened, TFC subscribers formed long lines hoping they could still avail of whatever tickets were left at the box-office. All early bird tickets at $40 — which included access to the park’s attractions and thrill rides and OK Go’s treasure chest of offerings — had sold out.

Thousands rushed to attend the three screenings of the blockbuster film, And I Love You So at the Great America Theatre. Hundreds of young Filipino Americans lined up to audition for Pinoy Big Brother and Pinoy Dream Academy with no less than director Laurenti Dyogi and ABS-CBN head of Entertainment Production Cory Vidanes overseeing the auditions.

The Redwood Amphitheatre was packed to the brim by the time the main show started.

Chokoleit opened the show with a birthday cake for TFC and led the crowd in singing Happy Birthday. Candy Pangilinan joined him to co-host the show.

Billy Crawford fired up the audience with his performance of I’ve Got A Feeling. The Parangal folk dancers joined him on stage, giving Crawford’s rendition of the Black Eyed Peas’ hit a Filipino flavor.

MYX made its presence felt with a hip-hop dance number from the much acclaimed Kaba Modern.

Another crowd favorite was Bugoy Drilon, who sang Paano Na Kaya and later did a duet with Laarni Lozada.

Vhong Navarro’s animated dance number brought laughter and joy to the fans.

To mark the US broadcast of Betty La Fea this month, 19 Filipinos took part in a Betty look-alike contest. Betty La Fea stars Bea Alonzo and John Lloyd Cruz picked out three winners, who won $100, $200 and $300, respectively. Bea and John Lloyd capped their appearance with a duet.

Luis Manzano took part in the Dating Game, with three contestants vying for his attention. Then, Manzano joined the Kanto Boys in a Ricky Martin song-and-dance medley.

The crowd went wild over Go, Go Ok, which paved the way for Cash/Bukash (in the style of the wildly popular game Pera o Bayong). A lucky Filipina named Day Presa, from Newark, California won the grand prize: A townhouse at Orchard courtesy of Sta. Lucia Land. As a bonus from TFC’s sponsors, Preza also received two roundtrip tickets to the Philippines from Hawaiian Airlines and $500 in cash.

Charice performed the theme songs of Tayong Dalawa, Ikaw and May Bukas Pa.

Bugoy and Laarni were joined by Rachel Alejandro for an inspiring medley of TFC station ID songs.

Charice went back on stage to perform TFC’s 15th anniversary song, Dahil Tayo’y Filipino with Billy and the Parangal dancers.

All performers then sang Galaw sa Tag-Araw for the finale.

ABS-CBN Global COO Raffy Lopez commented: “This celebration is all about making the community happy and that in itself is so fulfilling for us. We’ve had 15 years of doing this and we’re going to be doing this for many more years. Hopefully, we’ll have many more of these events.”

De Jesus added: “We’ve kept our promise of making this a win-win event for our subscribers, supporters, partners and the Filipino community in general. People experienced the Kapamilya spirit and left prouder of being a Filipino.”