During last night's 19th anniversary event, O Bar received official confirmation from the Department of Tourism that it is now a certified Tourism Entertainment Complex. It's the first LGBTQ establishment to get this sort of certification, which is kind of a big deal for the bar. It comes with its own little benefits, but what is most important to me is how even the government acknowledges the unique position O Bar occupies as an entertainment space in the country. I hope this helps more people discover the magic of the bar and the amazing shows they stage night after night after night.
Tobie introduced me to O Bar shortly after we started hanging out in person together and it has been a part of our life as a couple ever since. It has become one of the most important facets of our lives, although it wasn't always that way.
As part of my own way of joining the celebration for O Bar's anniversary, I poured through my albums of photos of different O Bar nights over the years and the more than 3,000 O Bar videos on my YouTube channel for a bunch of "projects" I had set up for myself including celebrating 19 of my favorite O Bar performances and creating an album of my first photos of different O Bar performers, staff and the like. If you've been keeping up with this blog, then you know that I've been rambling about this the whole month. And I managed to get everything published on different platforms like a little social media campaign I had run independent of the bar. I have no regrets about the time and effort needed to get this done - it feels like just another modest way to continue to show my love for the bar.
As I went over my photos, it was interesting to note that my early years mainly had photos of our friends and not much else. I didn't even take a lot of photos of the shows because my documentation focus was on the friends we'd bring with us - similar to how I viewed nights out at Malate with my previous circle of friends. But with O Bar it felt like the norm to get to know the staff better because you could end up with the same waiter every time you go. The first O Bar only had a sliver of a stage so you the drag queens could reach out and pull you into the show, so you might as well get to know them better. And even as the bar got bigger, we never shook off the habit of getting to know everyone. And I could see this same shift in my photos from being friends-only to including more of the performances, eventually just about anything that felt notable or memorable.
My album of first O Bar photos has nearly 300 images, which represents just how many people have passed through the bar but also how many people we have gotten to know and the changes we've witnessed over the years. I've been going to O Bar with Tobie for over 15 years now and that's longer than many of the performers have been working at the bar several times over. It's a weird statistic to keep in my head, but it's there. I get why some people think we're more directly involved in the bar's operations given how long we've been going and such.
At the same time, the people that we'd bring with us to O have changed a lot over the years, but we have never stopped going. Tobie fell in love with the bar first and he happily infected me with that same passion and we've just kept on going ever since. And when your table group is inconsistent, what becomes more reliable are the performers and the staff - the people who work so hard to make the bar come alive and remain such an amazing place. This isn't a universal experience, I'm sure. But I guess somewhere along the way we made a conscious choice and that hasn't felt like any sort of a "mistake" since then. We still have good friends with whom we celebrate O Bar, but it has also become more important to celebrate with O Bar itself and with all the people who make O Bar possible.
This is getting rambly again. I am so emotionally gushy this month.
So what am I trying to say?
O Bar is very special to us and because of the role it has played in our lives, we've done our best to show our thanks and appreciation for the staff and the performers time and time again. Funny examples include how Tobie switches into "GRO mode" when he finds out someone near our table is a first-timer at the bar. I have a YouTube channel with over 3,500 O Bar videos and I continue to field questions from random people on the internet about who each performer is or how they can find the bar. I've even been able to meet some people from the provinces who planned trips to Manila to see O Bar because of all my videos, which is exactly why I record and post all these things in order to help more people experience the O Bar magic, even just online. The list goes on and on. And lately our annual Christmas gift effort has kinda rather expansive as we try to cover as many performers and staff as possible.
O Bar may not be quite as special for everyone else, but I'd like to think that it just means they haven't fully embraced the experience. It's never too late! It starts with the little things like remembering the name of your waiter and maybe developing a preference for who you want to work with when you go back. It's knowing the names of the O Divas and making sure to budget some money for tips when you go out because they deserve so much love and appreciation. It's when you stop treating the bar like any other establishment and recognize you're entering a very welcoming home, that it's only proper to get to know the people who live there and make it such a warm and inviting space. Then I'm sure you'll start to see more of what makes the place so uniquely special for us more than any other bar I've been to in my years as an out gay man.
Happy, happy 19th birthday, O Bar. Thank you so much for all that you've given us over the years. I hope that we've been able to share even just a fraction of how much we love and appreciate the totality of what makes O Bar what it is because they are part of our family now and forever. O Bar will always be home for us and I'm sure there's space for any of you reading this to feel welcome, too.
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