Forget The Front Row, Pinoy Playlist Musikahan Wants You to Sing

From community karaoke and modern harana to performances honoring Filipino music’s most influential voices, BGC Pinoy Playlist Musikahan turns your weekend into an invitation to make music together.

Words Randolf Maala-Resueño
Photos courtesy of BGC Arts Center
October 16, 2026

Music is rarely just something Filipinos listen to. It spills out of videoke machines, late-night jam sessions, roadside serenades, and every gathering where someone inevitably grabs a microphone. 

This October, BGC Pinoy Playlist Musikahan (PPM) 2026 takes that familiar impulse and makes it the heart of a two-day celebration.

Returning to the BGC Arts Center on October 17 and 18, the festival reimagines the audience as spectators waiting for the next act, all the while as active participants in the music. 

Curated by National Artist for Music Ryan Cayabyab, alongside Noel Ferrer, Moy Ortiz, and Maria Isabel Garcia, PPM explores the many ways music connects people, generations, and communities. 

A festival you can sing along to

The program moves beyond the conventional concert format. One-Day Choir, happening October 17 in partnership with DIWA Singing Club and facilitated by Toma Cayabyab and Irvs Redor, invites strangers to discover what happens when individual voices become a shared sound. 

On October 18, Community Karaoke brings OPM favorites to a live band, with the song selection shaped by audience votes.

Elsewhere, Modern Harana serenades special spots around BGC, while Harana on the BGC Bus takes the tradition into the everyday commute. Salinawit reimagines foreign songs through translation into Philippine languages, and the Music-Making Zone invites visitors to experiment with sound themselves.

The festival also features Pinoy Playlist Conversations, artist performances, and On Cue, a free online series pairing live music and personal storytelling with a playful twist on the Filipino game Tumbang Preso.

Honoring the music-makers

The Ryan Cayabyab Awards recognize three figures whose work helped shape Philippine music across performance, scholarship, and composition.

Dr. Grace Nono, an ethnomusicologist, performing artist, and cultural worker, has devoted much of her practice to Philippine oral traditions and Indigenous sacred music. Her scholarship, including The Shared Voice and Babaylan Sing Back, bridges musical performance, cultural memory, and the preservation of knowledge. 

Prof. Chino Toledo—composer, conductor, and educator—has built a career spanning contemporary composition, orchestral direction, and music for theater and film. A professor of composition and theory at the University of the Philippines, he has earned distinctions including the SUDI National Music Award and Gawad Buhay honors for his work in opera. 

Noel Cabangon, meanwhile, has made folk music a vehicle for personal reflection and social consciousness. As a singer-songwriter and former member of Buklod, he helped bring songs about human rights, environmental protection, and political realities into the Filipino musical imagination. His celebrated repertoire includes “Kanlungan” and “Tatsulok.”

PPM for everyone

Beyond the music, the creative community takes center stage at BGC Art Mart, bringing artists, makers, and creative entrepreneurs together at Alveo Central Plaza, BGC Arts Center. Visitors can browse locally made creations and meet the people behind them, extending the festival’s celebration of Filipino creativity beyond the stage and into the marketplace.

At its core, Musikahan celebrates a distinctly Filipino idea: a song becomes something else when it is shared. Because sometimes the best part of a music festival isn’t hearing a song performed perfectly. It’s discovering that the people beside you know every word, too.

Join the festival this October 17 and 18 at BGC Arts Center, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig. Tickets are available through TicketWorld. All proceeds support the arts programs of the  Bonifacio Art Foundation, Inc.