After What Seemed Like an Eternity of Sitting, Waiting, Wishing...

We finally got to see Jack Johnson live! 

And he did not disappoint! 

OMGAEOFIJASFJHGVOAHIJROARLOJSDFJAF!!!

Allow me to share with you all a story of our greatest weekend in 2024 yet. 

*deep breath* Here goes... 

Jan and I didn't know about the Wanderland Music Festival until we saw on Facebook that Jack Johnson would be headlining it (love how the Facebook algorithm works). So, we immediately bought the tickets even though we had never heard of ALL the other artists that would be performing there.  

This would have been a perfect JUNK time for us. Just us, no kids. But we realized no one else could look after the tornado duo for the whole weekend without losing an arm or an eye. We know it is such a hassle to be traveling with two toddlers to a music festival, and without help at that. 

But we cannot not see Jack Johnson. 

We had to do it, even if it meant going through hell at the airport because the tiny humans might decide to flail violently on the floor because waiting to board takes forever or that they tire their tiny legs from running around and refuse to walk while we haul multiple pieces of luggage.

Thankfully, none of those shit happened. They traveled like champs. It's exhausting, nonetheless.

We stayed at the Crimson Hotel in Filinvest City, Manila. We would have opted for a cheaper hotel but, again, when you have two toddlers in tow, convenience is the only thing that matters. The hotel is located just across the event grounds. 

And surprisingly, the view of the event was right in front of our room. Since we have already decided that we are not going in as long as the field still feels like a frying pan, we were able to see and hear all the other artists who performed before 5pm. They were all so good, by the way.

But I think the best thing about staying in Crimson is that Jan met and had a small talk with Zach Gill at the hotel lobby. And I bet it would have been epic had he met Jack, who was wandering around the area at that time. Apparently, they stayed in the same hotel as us.

Left: People started to flock even though it's scorching. Right: Jan with Zach. He said he was so nervous, hence, the blurry shot.

Outfit check. Shorts and vest (formerly a jacket) are from ukay-ukay. Inner top from Shein. Boots are Dr. Martens from Zalora. That's our hotel at the back.

We went in at almost 6pm. We didn't have a lot of photos because we went straight to the area made for little humans. We listened to good music while they played. Mind you, the space was facilitated by childcare workers and teachers. It really was a child-friendly music fest.

Jan and I have been to many concerts before, but this was the first time that we went together. And it's a special one at that.

A random guy took photos of us and he was kind to airdrop it to us.

One of the things that drew us closer was our love for Jack Johnson's music. As in like, "ui, ganahan pud diay kang Jack Johnson? (So you like Jack Johnson too?)" Yes, it was a bit of a surprise to meet someone who knew Jack because he wasn't very popular in the city. Then we hit it off. We'd spend an awful lot of time at the beach where Jan would play the guitar/uke while I sang Jack's songs even though I can't carry a tune to save my life. 

The next thing I knew, I was dancing with Jan to Jack Johnson's Never Fade on our wedding day. Our audio-video presentation background music was Better Together. Almost everything on our wedding playlist was, you guessed that right, Jack Johnson songs. Haha 😁

All this time, we thought we'd be seeing Jack live in Hawaii or Australia because it is highly unlikely for him to perform here. And when we finally got the chance to catch him live, we pounced on it—by hook or by crook.

It was worth it.

Jack Johnson is incredibly talented. If there's one artist that I could listen to infinitely, that would be him. And hearing his voice live is surreal. Probably the only thing that bummed me was the two-hour show. 

IT WAS NOT ENOUGH.

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