It’s on: 7107 int’l music festival goes on full blast despite intrigues

CLARK FIELD, PAMPANGA – A persistent rumor and a rocky first few minutes aside, the 7107 International Music Festival goes on full blast today, February 22 at the Global Gateway Logistics City.

The event, marketed as the first international festival in the country, will be headlined by the rock bank Red Hot Chili Peppers, which will perform on Sunday, February 23. The band arrived in the country on Friday.

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“We’re nervous but at the same time looking forward to it,” 7107 co-founder and producer Mike Pio Roda told Philstar.com and other members of the press a few hours after the event started.

Roda admits encountering a few birthing pains both within and beyond their control. These include busted amplifiers and broken generators, as well as a vehicular accident in the North Luzon Expressway (the main thoroughfare that leads to Clark). The festival gates opened thirty minutes past 12 noon—a few minutes behind schedule. But so far, everything’s smooth sailing with the bands continuously performing to a growing crowd.

“There’s really no benchmark to how we gauge the success of this event yet. Because it is the first year, there are going to be growing pains,” Roda said.

Roda expected the crowd to fill up the venue during the later hours of Saturday and on Sunday, when most of their main acts will perform.

There’s no official attendance count as early as now. But as for ticket sales, “We have sold well,” Roda said. “And we’re estimating around 70 to 80 percent  tickets sold right now.”

The goal, though, is to accommodate more than 35,000 concertgoers throughout the two-day event.

“I actually expect people to come in early to fight for the front (slots).I’m sure people will be here. It’s a packed line up since the beginning," Roda said.

Meanwhile, Roda also addressed a recent article published in the news website Rappler which questioned where the producers of the music festival got the funds for the event. The report linked the event to the son of alleged pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Napoles.

According to the article, the group behind event—which, aside from Roda, include Tina and Jon Herrera—had no “financial capacity” to fund 7107.

But Roda explained the news article failed to take into consideration other financial means.

“Pretty much everything on that article is not accurately depicted. There are some instances on there that were fact,” he said. “However, they’ve failed to look at the replies regarding bank loans, for one thing, and then secondly just personal financiers from family.”

In previous interviews with Philstar.com, Tina Herrera denied the rumored links of their event to the Napoleses.

In any case, concertgoers are starting to fill the 7107 venue today, as bands such as the British The Natives, DJs such as BCAL, and local artists such as Wilderness have performed.

Most of the attendees are expected to come on Sunday, when most of the main acts are set to perform. Among the acts tomorrow include Kendrick Lamar, Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, and Empire of the Sun.

The Natives and rap group Kid Ink have already talked to the local press during the event.

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Roda said they will use their first year—in case the planned second year of 7107 comes to fruition—to gauge the event’s success in the future.

“It’s our first year. We can’t determine that 10,000 is great. We can’t say 30,000 is great. Until we have this year to compare ourselves to, we really don’t have a benchmark,” he said.