02EEF: ⭕️Bar (Kickoff) High

It's a Sunday night, and I'm sorely tempted to head out to O Bar with Tobie because...that's how we feel every night that O Bar is open. This is probably why a lot of people assume that we go to O Bar pretty much every night, because we do go often, and I'm sure that a lot of friends are used to seeing us there when they go. I've been going to O Bar for over 16 years now, and Tobie has been going even longer - so it's fair to say that we've become familiar fixtures at the bar. And already have a crazy number of blog posts talking about why we love the bar so much.

I wasn't sure what to expect from an anniversary kickoff event (as the official anniversary is in December), but last night was rather mindblowing. The show featured some of the bigger productions from this year, along with performances by a lot of O Bar alumni who have experienced a different level of success after being on Drag Race Philippines. But the other underlying theme of the night was ORIGINAL SONGS as we had O2Men singing their song "Buhawi", the O Divas debuting a new girl group-style song "We Are The O Bar Queens", and finally the official theme song for the 20th anniversary "O Bar, Our Home". Singing drag queens is one thing, but original music, too? We've really come a long way.

A moment in the show that really struck me was the inevitable video celebrating the bar's legacy. I knew there was going to be something like that - I wasn't prepared for how much of that video consisted of O Bar performances I had recorded over the years. My efforts to document the many queens and the different performances over the years are best seen in all my photos and videos. Seeing my own content as part of that video was nice.

And if this was the kickoff event, who knows what the actual anniversary celebration in December is going to be like? We've heard some things about the plans, but we all have to wait for the official announcements once things have been finalized. But hey, how many establishments, what more a queer establishment, can celebrate 20 years of serving a community? That's quite an achievement!

Meanwhile, we're staying home because there's work tomorrow. I've processed another batch of O Bar videos, and I have two more batches to go through before I can get started on the kickoff event videos, which are PHENOMENAL! It's a good thing I generally have use of my right again - my video processing is back to its former rate of efficiency, so I should get things cleared within the coming week.