Hangga't marami ang lugmok sa kahirapan
At ang hustisya ay para lang sa mayaman
...
Habang may tatsulok at sila ang nasa tuktok
Di matatapos itong gulo
...
Totoy kumilos ka, baliktarin ang tatsulok
Tulad ng dukha, nailagay mo sa tuktok...

And so I conclude that what happened in the UP Fair last night was not the fault of the number 13, but Bamboo's.

Kidding aside, "Tatsulok" was the last performance in last night's Loverage 3, and it wouldn't have been the last had the jologs (or the Jumping Jologs, or the Orcs, as they're called every UP Fair Week) not battered the galvanized iron sheets (yero) serving as fences around the grounds. The song was that...empowering, I guess. The shame. The organizers had to pause the program a few times, and then this happened. In the end, they just cancelled the rest of the program, and the thousands of people who came to watch all went home distressed, fuming, and/or really really bummed out.

Here's the news report this morning: http://www.gmanews.tv/video/36610/Riot-sumiklab-sa-Pre-Valentine

I'd wanted to relive the good old UP Fair days of watching Rivermaya, Sugarfree, Bamboo, Kamikazee, Orange and Lemons, MYMP and even Jay-R (haha!). And yes, I expected the jologs; I'd encountered their mosh pit during one Bamboo performance. But it was relatively peaceful the last time I went to the fair; it was in 2006, the first Loverage event and also the night before Valentine's Day, and the presence of bouncers everywhere was really imposing. I thought everything would go well last night. But, upon seeing those long queues (ending past Econ or probably Law on one side, and past the AS Parking Lot on the other), I should have preempted everything else that would happen later on.

Joey and I decided to let the queues whittle down, but when it hadn't yet, even by 10:30 PM, I asked my brother Yam for our tickets and we joined in the queue. But when we hadn't yet gotten in by the time Bamboo started performing -- this was past midnight -- we decided to give up and just watch the fair from outside.

And then these kids came. Sadly, the kids were the first who started ramming themselves and kicking at the yero during that Bamboo number. And then there were more, teenagers too I guess, and they apparently used the cobblestones being used to repair the Academic Oval sidewalks. By this time we were already inside the fair grounds (yes, the queue was gone, I thought that everything would sort itself out by the next performance, and I was really persistently stupid).

I couldn't see the jologs come in, but like an army of orcs entering Helm's Deep, they made their presence felt, as the droves of people who'd been enjoying the fair started pressing against us and backing off towards the exit. (Also, the jologs started raising their fist, rakenrol style like this: \m/ [haha] and holding up their emo teddy bears.) THANK GOD everyone didn't start running or else we'd be seeing another stampede in the morning papers. I was really scared then, but I was mostly kicking myself in the head for being stupid enough to enter the fair grounds even when everything started to go awry. The poor hosts (hi Danes :D), they were probably scared out of their wits too, for no one in his right mind would tell the jologs to "behave" while telling everyone else where the exit was.

I was texting my brother, who was backstage, and then he told me we should go home since they finally cancelled the event. (I told him that I shouldn't pay for our tickets anymore, but heck, he's my younger brother, so I paid him anyway.) There was clearly a lack of security, or at the very least, security which should have been there way earlier, when the crowd was beginning to swell crazily.

I just find it ironic how much I (and most of those who were watching last night, I'm sure) loved the song "Tatsulok" when we were all going to condemn those who are at the bottom of that triangle later on -- and for good reason. The (lack of?) rationale behind trying to get inside the fair grounds and ramming the barricades in the process is way beyond us. It could've been a gang thing, something about doing it for the heck of it. (See, I can't even wrap my mind around it.) Clearly, they wanted to watch but have no money to, and stirring up confusion was probably one way of getting around that. But even that does not stir up anyone's sympathy. UP students (and alumni like me), known for advancing the rights of the poor and understanding their plights, are suddenly at odds.

Times like these, I grieve for the sheer hopelessness of it all.

* * *
Valentine's Day truly is a marketing ploy of all these commercial establishments. I splurged today on books of love poetry and fiction. Ugh. I am disgusting. And Joey has been very encouraging, damn him. He was bitten by the Valentine's bug too as he bought a bouquet for me.

Of all the stars I admired, drenched
in various rivers and mists,
I chose only the one I love.
Since then I sleep with the night.

- Pablo Neruda

:-)