By Joy Agoylo
On May 23, 2026, the historic Puerta Real Gardens in Intramuros will once again shed its quiet stillness and transform into a vibrant world of rhythm, color, and movement as the 12th Malasimbo Music & Arts Festival unfolds. Set within one of Manila’s most iconic heritage sites, the festival continues its signature tradition of merging music, visual art, and community into a single immersive cultural experience.
This year, Malasimbo deepens its global-meets-local identity with a powerful lineup led by Julian Marley & The Uprising, whose reggae performance carries forward a legacy of unity, love, and conscious expression. Sharing the stage are local artists Jeck Pilpil & Peacepipe, Anima Tierra, and Selah Dub Warriors, voices that ground the festival in the richness of homegrown sound and spirit.
Yet at Malasimbo, music is only the beginning.
The grounds of Puerta Real Gardens will evolve into an open-air gallery, where large-scale installations by leading visual artists, including Jinggoy Buensuceso, Mic Rahman, Simon Te, Cherry Fulo, Hohana, Veronica Ibarreta, Hare King, Sim Tolentino, and the Indie Green Culture Family, reshape the landscape into something immersive and experiential. Each piece invites audiences to move beyond observation and into participation, where art becomes environment.
As night falls, the experience takes on motion. The Daloy Dance Company weaves through the crowd in striking wearable art by Leeroy New and Olivia d’Aboville, dissolving the distance between performer and viewer. Movement becomes installation, and the festival itself becomes alive.
Beyond the main stage, Malasimbo expands its vision of culture as a shared experience. The Kids Village offers hands-on creativity, from Bambike rides and drum workshops to weaving, yoga, solar panel building with Liter of Light, and more, while the Battle of the Brush turns painting into a live, unfolding dialogue between artists and audience.
At its core, Malasimbo remains rooted in a clear philosophy. As founder Miro Grgi? puts it, the festival is about “bridging cultures through music and arts,” a vision that comes to life through every layer of the experience, from sound and sculpture to movement and interaction.
More than a festival, Malasimbo 2026 is a moment where heritage meets experimentation, and where Intramuros becomes not just a backdrop, but an active participant in creativity itself.
Tickets are available at www.malasimbo.com.
———————————————————————-
Janeena Chan is on the cover of STYLISH Magazine right now. The multihyphenate media star, in-demand host, singer, actress, Sparkle artist, and our very own Stylish correspondent shares her journey as a modern Filipina-Chinese woman navigating her career in entertainment and lifestyle while embracing her heritage.
Read the Stylish Magazine January-February 2026 cover story here.
Our #StylishPodcast episode featuring our September-October cover girl Jasmine Curtis-Smith is out. Watch it on Facebook and YouTube.
Stylish Magazine is “your source of self-love, style & inspiration” first introduced in June 2020. Our television series format, Stylish TV, once ranked one of the Top 50 Most Watched Multicultural Shows in the USA, can be streamed on iWantTFC and be watched on TFC (The Filipino Channel) in more than 50 countries. Watch it online here.
Style Visionary Network is a lifestyle-business online platform where #WeCreateVisionaries. Also introduced in June 2020, Style Visionary Network is also the digital home channel of media brands Stylish Magazine and Stylish TV.