Manila Entertainment
Folk dancing and cinemas during the day, pubs and nightclubs at night, Manila is the Philippine's entertainment hub. This city offers a wide variety of entertainment to suit every taste, from jazz clubs, discos, cinemas, theatres and casinos to a wide selection of bars and pubs. For party lovers and culture aficionados, the endless lists of entertainment options will keep you feeling happy.
Nightlife
Manila's former nightlife district, Ermita, changed radically when Mayor Lim ordered many of the ‘bikini bars’ with young dancers to be closed in the early 1990s. In recent years, more ‘girlie bars’ are again opening in Ermita, and there are a couple of places with live music.
Baywalk is the newest and best bubbly development in Manila's nightlife scene, stretching for over a kilometre along Manila Bay's Roxas Boulevard. There are a variety of sidewalk cafés serving a selection of international food such as Thai, Chinese, Korean, Hawaiian, Filipino and Spanish, with two or more fantastic local Filipino live bands playing at the weekends and on special occasions. In the ‘university belt’, Merricks, across from the University of Santo Tomas, is small but cosy, with mostly students and live music.
Makati is the financial district of Manila where most of the banks, embassies and airline offices are located and a concentration of nightlife options are found on P Burgos Street, Makati Avenue and their intersecting streets. The bars here offer quite a variety of mostly male entertainment. Women would probably have more fun at the higher end hotel discos and bars, or places which provide live music catering to a more mixed audience.
Theatre and music
For those seeking cultural enjoyment, regular performances of plays, ballets and concerts are held at the Cultural Centre of the Philippines. Most of the performances are musicals, comedies, classics or children's plays. Besides the Cultural Centre of the Philippines, there are some other popular theatres including the Meralco Theatre, Metropolitan Theatre, William J Shaw Theatre and Rajah Sulayman Theatre.
Live bands, ranging from the magnificent to the preposterous, swarm right across Asia, and Manila is where they come to perform for their home audience. Filipinos are equally addicted to karaoke and English crooners can enjoy competing against the local talent. The scope of local options is showcased at the EDSA International Entertainment Complex in Pasay City. For fans of classical music, there are free open-air concerts at Puerta Real, Rizal Park and Paco Park on Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings.
Festivals
There are a number of annual festivals that are unique to the city, with highlights including:
- Fiesta de Sto Nino is held in honour of Jesus. Devout Catholics from all over town join the seemingly endless procession of various images of the Sto Nino (January).
- Flores de Mayo, meaning ‘Flowers of May’, is a month-long festival honouring the Blessed Virgin Mary. Beginning with daily floral offerings at her altar by little girls dressed in white, the festivities culminate with a procession on the last day, when the town's beauties are dressed as one of the Marian attributes or as a biblical figure.
- Sayaw sa Obando is an event held in honour of Sta Clara, patron saint of the childless. It is believed that women who want to have children should take part in the Obando dance, and soon after Sta Clara will grant their wish (May).
- Bailes de los Arcos is a dance celebration held annually during the feast day of Saints Peter and Paul. The participants, usually daughters of past participants, go through a year of dance training and on the day of the event, dance their graceful best to pay tribute to the Virgen de la Rosa (June).
- Grand Marian Procession is held in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mother’s birthday. Thousands of pious Catholics take part in a grand procession in which 50 images of the Blessed Virgin are paraded through the streets of Old Manila (December).