San Miguel targets world records for beer fests
By Beverly T. Natividad
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 19:05:00 09/06/2008
Filed Under: Beverages, records, Festive Events (including Carnivals)
MANILA, Philippines -- Nothing brings together the feast-loving Filipinos more than beer and music.
On Friday night, more than 15,000 people flocked to San Miguel Avenue in Ortigas to put this to good use by celebrating country’s renowned brew and launching an early, prolonged celebration of Oktoberfest, and at the same time set a world record while at it.
Barricaded with a long line of steel sheets, the whole San Miguel Avenue stretch from Lourdes Avenue to Julia Vargas was transformed into an extensive 603.5-meter-long beer bar, with four concert stages to boot.
This beer bar has successfully toppled Taiwan’s old Guinness Book world record at 220-meters.
Food and beverage conglomerate San Miguel Corp. (SMC) commenced the flow of draft beer a full month before October to kick off the prolonged version of the German festival.
While the original German beer fest usually lasts 16 days, SMC will mount a 120-day Oktoberfest.
Affie Carpio, San Miguel Beer Pale Pilsen brand manager, told the Inquirer that SMC’s goal for this year’s celebration was to stage the longest and biggest Oktoberfest.
Since they were aiming for the grandest celebration, he said, why not make it record-breaking as well?
After contacting the Guinness Book of World Records and confirming where current beer records stand, Carpio said the SMC management thought that two beer records were in fact doable for the grand September 5 celebration.
Apart from the longest beer bar, Friday’s Oktoberfest kick-off also hoped to bag the world record for gathering the largest number of people for a beer toast.
Las Vegas currently holds the world record for pooling 13,000 guests to raise a glass of beer.
Carpio said Friday’s event gathered at least 15,000 beer toasters, but that they have yet to make the final count along with a third-party agency.
“It all worked out well for us. All the opportunities we needed to mount something this big came about,” said Carpio.
Dubbed as “Siento Bente,” the 120-day beerfest was tailor-made for local "barkadas" who love getting together around a pitcher of beer. This is, as the SMC tag line describes, “samahang walang katulad (friendship like no other),” Carpio said.
“We wanted to communicate to everyone that San Miguel is the beer that brings people together. This is the biggest and grandest fiesta ng barkada. This is perfect for us Filipinos,” said Carpio.
Friday’s big event stopped traffic all the way to EDSA when it closed the street surrounding the SMC compound in Ortigas, forcing vehicles to take alternate routes.
Starting at 4 p.m. young professionals from the Ortigas business district and music fans trooped to the steel-gated venue -- many on foot to escape the heavy traffic.
At around 7 p.m., when the bands started playing, a large number of people had already crowded both the entrance and the exit doors hoping to find their way to the concert party.
SMC president Ramon Ang along with Mandaluyong Mayor Benhur Abalos led the beer toasting at 9:30 p.m. at a ceremonial opening of the Oktoberfest.
While everyone was invited to be part of history that night, a good number of young people settled into listening to the music and celebrating the party sitting on the sidewalks outside the venue.
Tickets to the event, which featured no less than the alternative rock bank Third Eye Blind and 40 other local bands, were sold at P120, covering the cost of two San Miguel Pale Pilsens.
The party’s bouncers and security guards had to deal with many gatecrashers who came to the venue hoping to be part of the historic beer-toasting, only to find out that they could not get in for free.
As the hour neared for foreign act Third Eye Blind to take center stage, the crowds started to become rowdy, jumping into areas designated for the media and sponsors.
Some people outside the venue were enterprising enough to bring hammers with which to pry open the barricades the steel sheets that enclosed the area.
Carpio said the organizers had arranged for tight security to ensure the safety of concert attendees.
“We want to give the people a great event where people can be safe,” he said.
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