THE SM Supermalls finally ended its pandemic-caused two-year festival drought after it hosted this year’s Castaway Music Festival at the SM City Pampanga Atrium on Saturday evening, April 23, 2022.
Now on its 7th edition, the music festival brought together some of the most sought-after bands and artists namely Hale, Silent Sanctuary, Meg Fernandez and Gigi De Lana.
According to SM City Pampanga Mall Manager Aaron Montenegro, the easing of the movement restrictions under Alert Level 1 allowed the holding of the homegrown music festival for the first time again since the pandemic.
But despite the easing of restrictions, Montenegro said they still assured that minimum health standards were observed for the safety and security of the crowd.
“The venue has a maximum capacity of 40,000 persons but we only issued 15,000 tickets to ensure that social distancing is still observed,” he said.
Montenengro furthered that force multipliers from the local police, firemen, and provincial disaster risk reduction and management office also assured that all audience are compliant with health measures, especially the wearing of face masks at all times.
Hale’s frontman Champ Lui Pio, meanwhile, expressed gratitude to SM Supermalls and the Kapampangan crowd for a hyped-up Saturday night.
The hit alternative rock band serenaded the crowd with their renowned singles such as Blue Sky, The Day You Said Goodnight and their cover of Chasing Cars.
The 2000s hit band Silent Sanctuary, meanwhile, were a crowd favorite as they sang their singles Pasensya Ka Na, Bumalik Ka Na Sakin and Ikaw Lamang, among others.
Singer-songwriter Meg Fernandez also hyped up the crowd with pop songs while SM Supermalls surprised the crowd with the appearance of rising singer Gigi De Lana who was originally in the line-up.
The Castaway Music Festival, which started in 2014, usually crawls through the SM Supermalls in Northern Luzon to bring the best new and emerging live music acts, DJs and electronic musicians to its mallgoers.
This year, however, was different as it will only be held at the longest mall in the country, the SM City Pampanga.