Tucked on a mountainside somewhere in the Philippines, sits an Escobar-esque Villa, half engulfed by lush jungle overgrowth, and half smooth lawns of coconut trees. Unlike our late homie Pablo’s properties, Villa Malasimbo doesn’t double as drug lord safe haven. In contrast, it serves a wholesome duality of: part-time family vacation home & part-time location for Malasimbo Arts & Music Festival. This year, I flew out to the Philippines for the opportunity to document Malasimbo as an official photographer.
The festival runs three days long from Friday to Sunday. During the daylight I took full advantage of what Malasimbo has to offer. I participated in visual arts and sustainability workshops at the festival grounds, caught some sun and a massage on a secluded beach, and hiked with my cousins up a mountain. When I say “hiked”, we actually followed their dog for a couple miles up an almost non-existent foot path (probably created by the indigenous Mangyan tribes). We got lost a few times but ultimately made it to an amazing vantage point.
Around dusk the transformation begins, with low-frequency bass waves traveling straight down the mountain and (figuratively) knocking you in your chest. Vibrant colored jeepney busses make their way downhill to pick up festival-goers at their resorts. This year Melbourne based quartet, Hiatus Kaiyote, set the pace with their melodic jazzy soulful sounds on opening night. On night two, Big Mountain gifted us with some sonic nostalgia by performing their 90’s reggae chart toppers. On night three, the line-up took a turn to cater to those who prefer to “go dumb to some slaps!” with Bay Area natives, Triple Threat DJ’s. The festival attracts many highly talented musical acts and attendees. Most of the people you meet are bound to be involved in one art form or another.
This year in particular a different element was, literally, added to the mix of the festival experience. During the three nights of performances we caught some tropical rain. Now since I was documenting as an official photographer, with an expensive-as-hell medium format film camera, I caught myself trying to protect my gear at all costs. On saturday night the rainfall was a bit heavier and of course, my forgetful ass left my protective camera sleeve at the Villa. I hopped on my motorcycle that was parked near backstage, with my camera slung around my torso, and headed back with a friend to retrieve it. What should have been a 5 minute round trip turned into something unexpected. I miscalculated the mixture of added weight, muddy roads, and rainfall which led us to crash. I slid out on a half muddy, half concrete patch of backroad for around 10 yards. My homie and I got up with a few cuts and bruises, but nothing broken, nothing major...except for my camera, the expensive-as-hell one.
Looking back at this I am happy to say, ultimately only one bad event happened, amidst many great and transformative ones. While the damage to the camera may have hurt my bank account, the experiences and memories it helped me create has made me a richer man. The photos I captured are intended to explore this duality of my Malasimbo experience; calm yet chaotic, clear yet muddy.
Shot on both 35mm or 120 film
