Summer Siren Festival Review

This was my first time to attend something like a “Coachella” type of event (http://www.coachella.com/), and what’s more enticing was the fact that it is a 3-day event on the beach! Wow! So me and my friend booked in February. After paying online, I thought maybe I would get the option to choose our accommodations, but I only received a receipt in my email. I quickly sent Travel Factor an email asking about the details of the event. They responded promptly, a good sign, saying the travel itinerary and accommodations will be sent 3 days before the festival. I figured, hey as long as nothing goes wrong, and I can get a hassle-free beach getaway, a 3-day notice is fine. I was wrong.

I will try to be as detailed as possible lest I be misinterpreted. But simply put, this is a review about how disgruntled I am about this event hahaha...

First of all, the promised communication came in late at night, for the itinerary only. The email about our accommodations came in 2 days before the event. We also found out we are having 2 other roommates and that we cannot change things. Now for our bus, we were the only ones with roommates, and true enough we cannot change things, it is only 2 days before we hit the beach! Okay okay, fine, let’s be considerate to the organizers.

Call time for the bus ride was 3AM and will leave at 4:30AM sharp. Good that the waiting time was a long one since we arrived at 3:45AM. We did leave at 4:30AM, no worries. We had one pit stop which was the NLEX gasoline station and after this, the ride went straight to Crystal Beach Resort.

We reached Crystal Beach in San Narciso, Zambales at around 9:30am. It took a while before we can hit the beach because the electric wires were in the way of the buses. I was thinking to myself: did they not know about vertical and horizontal clearances when they made their ocular inspection as well as video teaser?

So it was clearly stated in the itinerary that we will have a “free time” at the beach prior to check in. We were told by our bus leader that we are to meet at the front of Crystal Beach by 1:45pm so we can be transported to our accommodations for check in. We were quite unluckily booked by Travel Factor at San Antonio, a 30-minute ride away from San Narciso. Okay we were told to loiter from 10:30AM to 1:45PM, sounds agreeable since we really want to check out the concert grounds of Crystal Beach anyways. Hey what could go wrong?

1:30PM, we went to the meeting spot. I even called the assistant bus leader to check on the time. So I was told that the buses won’t fit on the road leading to Crystal Beach so we will be picked up by vans/shuttles to take us to San Antonio. 2PM still no sign of logistics. 2:30PM, nothing. I called the assistant bus leader (I was not able to save the number of the bus leader) to ask about the situation. I even told her they have no respect for our time, that being told to have this much free-time is bad enough (as if we were kids told to play on the sandbox while the adults setup their booths), why can’t they afford to be on time? So she apologized and I asked her if she can send me SMS when the shuttles are taking the Bus #8 team to San Antonio. The agreed (adjusted) time was 3:30PM but I had to make sure they do not leave us because we had to grab something cold to drink inside Crystal Beach so I asked her to send me SMS. Waiting while standing outside the resort can be dehydrating too, you know.

By 3:30 PM, even without receiving any SMS from the bus leaders, we went straight to the front. We were able to catch the last shuttle, and after our names were confirmed, we were able to hit the road on our way to San Antonio. We checked in around 4-4:30PM. We took turns showering, since there were 4 of us in the room. Then we all snoozed. So tired and sleepy. We got drained of the entire transport system.

My friend and I woke up at 8PM. By then, our roommates were already out. We were quite lucky that our accommodations (Megan’s Room) had a really nice caretaker and the place had a tricycle terminal outside. It was indicated in the primer that the tricycle can take us to Crystal Beach for 100PhP per head one way, so we thought it was fairly priced for a 30-minute ride. Whoah we were charged 400 PhP, for the 2 of us. We tried to negotiate and finally we paid the tricycle owner PhP350. I hate haggling for these things so I settled with that price, also I had a hunch that with the chaos of the day’s logistics, that maybe the communication on tricycle pricing might have been wrong all along. I reported this to Travel Factor on their booth at the entrance. The Asst. Bus Leader for Bus#8 was there, and she was dead sure the price should have been PhP100/head. Alright, next time we will be adamant about just giving PhP200 for the 2 of us. We asked to sign up for the jeepney ride on the way home which only charge Php40 going straight to each of the San Antonio accommodations reserved for Travel Factor. We were the first to sign up for the 12:30AM ride and we even had stubs.

Pardon my amateur video :-P

The concert on night #1 was awesome because of Franco and Up Dharma Down. The stage setup was really nicely done, and lights are great. Forget about the DJ’s mixes. Although I must say the DJ that was mixing the sounds after the Zombettes were a lot better than the ones mixing during our daytime “loiter” period along Crystal Beach. Forget about the Zombettes too. Our roommates told us that the Zombettes had a totally different mix for that night that they were also shocked to hear not-so-awesome sounds on night #1.

We tried to reach the schedule of the jeepney and shocked to see that it was so full! No one was at the Travel Factor booth so no one took our stubs. We were 2 girls who sat at the steps of the jeepney. Yes, right there even before you get inside. We ate a lotta space dust! :-P Especially on the dusty dusty road leading to Punta de Uian, one of the accommodations for Travel Factor. The following day we learned that there was only one jeepney and driver that transported everyone back to San Antonio. No wonder the 12:30AM batch was so full until the roof! Yes, the guys were riding on top of the jeepney.

Day 2: we went to Crystal Beach with our roommates at 2:30PM. They saved the mobile number of the tricycle driver who brought them to Crystal Beach the night before, so we were fetched by two tricycles. Well after much discussion, as expected they were supposed to charge us additional PhP 50 for each of us. But we were in defensive mode so they finally agreed to just PhP200 per tricycle one way. You see it is no longer about the amount you pay, but the fact that they had the habit of catching you off guard with the price. It just feels like being ripped off and certainly on Day 2, you kinda get annoyed already that you do not let things slide anymore.

That afternoon at Crystal Beach was awesome, alcohol was being served at the beach front. The sounds and the activities (Acro Yoga and fire dances) were nice, the kind of beach lounging that I imagined in my head when I booked to pay for Summer Siren Festival. The DJ who was mixing on day 2 around 3:30-4:30PM was awesome. But then it was followed by 2 girl-DJ’s who seemed like what they were playing were mixed and recorded the day before, with so-so mixes that were not fancy, not engaging, and I was even thinking how hard is it really to make a nice beach-type mix? Travel Factor should make a good screening of DJ’s if they plan to have a next time.

Yoga

So here we go with concert night #2. Honestly we only stayed outside the concert grounds, using the bean bags as our beds and staring at a few stars and the clouds. Oh by the way, the concert area is a fenced portion along the beach front. You cannot bring in food or alcoholic drinks.

That far out place after the quicksilver booths is the fenced concert area.

But on Night#2, they also disapproved bringing water and juices in the fenced concert area since they started selling those inside too.

The beer was sold at PhP50 per plastic cup. This is barely a bottle of San Miguel Light, mind you. The first night I was served with a plastic cup with more bubbles than beer. The following night, there’s this one barista girl who has perfected transferring the beer on the plastic cup with less bubbles, but still there would be about 3 gulps of beer left on the bottle. During Concert night #2, I was surprised to be asked by the barista that I can finish whatever was left in the bottle before taking my cup to watch the concert. Hah, if only they did the same thing on concert night #1 and our afternoon beach lounging on Day #2! I mean I felt ripped off. The vodka and jaeger mixes were also sold expensively at PhP 150 for 1/3 of the plastic cup. And oh, need I say that Travel Factor had the time to print the Summer Siren logo on the plastic cups??? Yes they had the time to do such things on plastic. They could have invested a portion of the event budget on seamless transportation for the guests rather than worry about that logo on the plastic cup, which were by the way thrown away for every use! I would be impressed if they encouraged using the cups again in exchange for a little discount on beer!

The jeepney ride back home made us meet some of those in Bus #8. We were sharing the same sentiments on delayed and poor transportation arrangements by Travel Factor. We told them we met someone from Bus#2 and she told us they were doing fine, no delays, and they were booked at a walking distance accommodation near Crystal Beach. Why should it be any different with us? I honestly believe that despite the First-Come-First-Served basis of the event, we paid in full with what we reserved for, so we should not be shortchanged in terms of handling. There was not even an assurance of safety! The roads leading to our accommodations are not well lit, with no houses visible, so you would really be mindful about taking a tricycle after the concert at midnight or so.

Our Day 3 was decided: we bumped off visiting Crystal Beach and we rather resorted to island hopping with our roommates. The island hopping was arranged by Megan’s Room. We were able to visit 3 islands including Capones and Anawangin. We quickly came back by 10AM since the agreed schedule of pick up by Travel Factor was 11:30AM. You would think they would have stepped up a little on Day 3? After all promises that they would make up for it on day 3 by arranging that our group will go first in being transported back to the buses, you would think they could at least have the decency to arrive on time. 12:30PM, still no Travel Factor. I think we were able to check out around 12:45-1PM. So much for 11:30AM call time and all apologies…hehehe

There was no festive mood at all in Bus #8. Forget it. Everybody just wanted to go home. We even thought the bus had a malfunction somehow, somewhere along the way back to Manila. Luckily, we arrived back at the Podium area around 6:30PM if I am not mistaken. I really do not care anymore as long as I am out of hands of Travel Factor. Everything that can go wrong or be miscommunicated seems possible with them.

Overall, the event was a mess. Poor planning and poor handling. Travel Factor, this one was a mess on your part really. And all your apologies on SMS could not save your faces at all. The least you can do was be on time on Day 3, or at least buy all of us a bottle of buko juice each, hey whatever token you can give! Sheesh.

Overall, not much fun except that we had nice lucky pick roommates who also knew how to party despite the circumstances :) Of course the beach itself saved Travel Factor. Crystal Beach lends a natural appeal and had a wide enough space to accommodate all delegates. I would however recommend that if they ever plan to have another Summer Siren Festival, pick a spot with ample accommodations nearby for everyone, beef up the logistics, and ensure that everyone’s time is treated with respect.  Because after all the hoolabaloo that has happened, I really stopped caring about how the accommodations looked as long as the sheets are clean and the shower and toilet are working fine, and that we can be safe wherever we are checked in. Oh I forgot to add that maybe the DJ choices can do better. Hey, I am not asking for Avicci or David Guetta, I am sure Travel Factor cannot arrange for that seamlessly. There are many great DJ’s in the Philippines, and a little screening and orientation on how the sounds should be engaging can really help. Seriously.

We were adults who expected to have a hassle-free vacation.  Travel Factor obviously overlooked that portion.

And here’s to Bus #8: A toast to all of us who managed to have fun. I am sure I will hear and read similar reviews from you too J