@Rakpublika 2025: Celebrating The Philippines First Republic with Rock and Music

Hello there! @saydie here whose whole body was still sore after moshing while listening on different bands during the Rakpublika 2025 last Saturday, February 22.

Rakpublika is an annual event held at the city of Malolos in the province of Bulacan to celebrate the foundation of the Philippines First Republic also known as the Malolos Republic to fight against the Spanish Empire during the Philippine Revolution with Emilio Aguinaldo as the first president and was very vital in our ancestors quest in achieving Philippine Independence. This year marks the 126^th anniversary of the first republic and to commemorate this important part of the Philippine history, bands from different parts of the country are invited to perform in a concert for everyone can enjoy.

If I'm not mistaken, the event has been running since 2016 cause the first time that I go there was on 2017 but ever since 2019, it was only this year that I was able to go on Rakpublika again so I was really exited. Part of the reason for this was because of the newly built amphitheater, adding a second stage for more bands to perform and the other reason was that one of my favorite band, Saydie will be performing. I think its pretty obvious that I'm a fan given my hive username. Anyways, here is a complete list of the bands. Most of the time, I am moshing along with the crowd but I was also able to record a few performance, some of which I will be sharing the link on this post.

The event starts at 11:00 AM but since I have work, I only arrived at the venue 2:30 PM which makes me miss quite a number of bands already but compared to my friends that had come with me, they arrived at around 5:00 - 6:00 PM and by that time, the venue was starting to get more crowded. When I arrive, the band that is performing on the stage was Crimson Soda and not only that I enjoy their music but I believe that I could get along with them for a band that plays Pepsi Man in their background.

There are many bands that I do not know either they are fairly new or from other place such as this very young group called Square One that shows a lot of potential as the front man seams to have larger than life character that immediately capture everyone's attention as they cover the song Killing In The Name by Rise Against The Machine.

https://www.facebook.com/100001234577743/videos/602346915953567/

Then there was also Conquer Cities that when I first listen to, the first band that comes to my mind was A Skylit Drive.

https://www.facebook.com/crimepoet/videos/1172222584096540

Of course, there are also many homegrown bands present in the event that shows an amazing performance like Kachupoy where in their last song even pays a tribute to the late Jamir Garcia who was the former vocalist of Slapashock that brought Nu Metal to Philippines.

https://www.facebook.com/crimepoet/videos/598239563055358

Another homegrown band which has been frequent on Rakpublika was the Band Ultimate Ube that everyone enjoy because of how wacky their songs were and their vocalist, Armando was one of the host for the event.

https://www.facebook.com/crimepoet/videos/3939881239588093

But wait, there's more because not only do we have bands to perform from different parts of the country, this time there are also foreign bands that were invited for the event. “US:WE”(until seeing whale’s eyes) all the way from Taiwan together with BENNU IS A HERON(中国廣州) from Guangzhou China. Unfortunately, I was on the other stage when “US:WE” performs but here was a song from BENNU IS A HERON.

https://www.facebook.com/crimepoet/videos/1368543340983510

After that, many more bands had come such as Fragments, P.O.T, The Chongkeys and Setsuna which unfortunately I don't have footage either due to them being on the other stage or I am just far from the stage to capture a decent video as it makes difficult to move between stage with the crowd growing more and more. But if there is one band that I won't fail to capture is when Saydie gets to perform. Still, very solid voice and their singer Kat Taylor just seems to become even more beautiful with time even though they are nearing their 40's.

https://www.facebook.com/crimepoet/videos/983769446458440

Well, if loud music is not for you, you might want a change of phase by listening to some Reggae Music by Chocolate Factory as they sing the song Letra which is very relatable for teens in love.

https://www.facebook.com/crimepoet/videos/9371911046209385

And to close the event, the last band that perform was Wilabaliw and if I should say, they are the perfect closing for the event. They are very humble guys that will remind the audience to take care of each other because events like this could easily result on fights. As usual, he make his signature back plip perfectly- that he will always land with his back on the floor.

https://www.facebook.com/crimepoet/videos/1674200306807510

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Overall, the event ended with no major issue though I had made a mistake of not buying any merch early as most of the store has sold out their goods. Will just have to order online for now I guess but should be well prepared next year. Also please support our local bands and local artist.

That was it for my weekend. Thank you for reading my post and see you on the next one.