The Great British Festival Experience: Brits and Glamour

Now on its second year, the British Embassy’s Great British Festival fulfilled its promise to be bigger, better and greater. This three-day activity kicked off with a symbolic ribbon cutting by Her Majesty’s Ambassador for the Philippines Asif Anwar Ahmad together with Fil-Brit football stars James and Phil Younghusband.

“This is a great celebration of Philippine-British partnerships [that] we have been building over the years,” said Ambassador Ahmad, “We wanted this festival to highlight the many aspects of British excellence.” He then cited few of these many milestones, one of them the increase in Phil-British partnerships, with fifty-eight (58) new companies joining the festival from the original twenty-four (24) last year.

There were indeed different booths from known sporting, automobile and retail brands, and infrastructure companies. There was much activity in the education pavilion and the travel booths, which was a hit for the teenaged guests. People also lined up for booths that offered different games and prizes, and face painting for kids.

The entire Bonifacio High Street was decorated with iconic British landmarks. Although most of these replicas were only relatively satisfactory, the Game of Thrones’ Iron Throne still shone and was very obviously the crowd favorite.

And then there’s the food. The ambassador kid about how last year’s festival “didn’t have much food,” so this year, they whipped up (11) food booths, serving UK favorites! One of the most popular booths is the Union Jack Tavern that offers an authentic, fish-and-chips experience for everyone.

Other highlights were the fab Summer Collection fashion show of thirteen (13) UK brands (with some branches like Cath Kidston, River Island and Lee Cooper) already open in Manila and the much-awaited GREAT British Rockaoke contest. From 50 video entries uploaded online, 12 contestants were chosen to perform last Friday night. Anne Abegail Garza who finished strong in the competition sang an Adele selection during the eliminations and Alicia Keys’ If I Aint Got You during the finals. She got herself a trip for two to UK via Etihad Airways.Garza. Snowie Sarmiento whom Anne Abegail Garza had the final battle with also won P10,000 courtesy of the contest judge that night, actor Derek Ramsay.

Films and performances abound the event, too, as crowd favorites Harry Potter, James Bond and Sherlock were shown at the open air cinema. The indie film Titanic Love was also shown, giving the Philippines a taste of UK indie film, wit and humor.

Primer was able to interview some expats who attended the event. They said that they were at first admittedly curious of what was going on and wanted to try something new. Later, they found themselves enjoying the different things that the festival had to offer. Some thought that the idea of making ties and strengthening bonds through cultural and business means was good, but most of them were with their families and were plainly happy that their children had a lot of fun, too.

Bigger, better and greater British festival indeed! Kudos to the organizers and sponsors who made the event possible!