"I do want to apologize to you guys,” said Careless Music founder James Reid in a video message to all who attended the Wavy Baby Music Festival in the Queen City of the South, Cebu.

“I did everything in my power to give everyone the very experience despite the rain and technical difficulties.”

Careless Music staged Wavy Baby, its first ever music festival, last January 13 to 14, 2023 at the North Reclamation Area in Mandaue, Cebu. The two-day event promised an impressive lineup of over 20 artists and coincided with one of the most iconic festivals in the country: Cebu’s Sinulog festival.

“We’re really excited to do Wavy Baby in Sinulog because it’s the biggest and most historic festival in the Philippines,” explained Careless CEO Jeffrey Oh. “We want to build a festival that brings the best of the Philippines and the world together to meet and celebrate life and culture, which is what Sinulog is all about.”

Aside from its local and international acts, it was quite a statement for the label to choose Cebu as its location over typical Metro Manila venues. While it did invite some of the Manila-based artists, the festival promised to feature homegrown Cebuano artists such as Cookie$, Sepia Times, The Sundown, Mandaue Nights, Three Legged Men, and Wonggoys.

After all the hype, however, things started to go downhill. Inclement weather pushed the timeline back significantly, and changes had to be made.

One major change was the sudden offer of free entry for the first day of the event. With ticket prices ranged from ₱ 2,770 for general admission to ₱ 8,000 for the VIP pass, it was understandable that those who already had tickets were quite upset at the accommodation. To appease ticket holders, they were instead promised ₱ 2,000 worth of drinks, but they were only able to avail of them on Day 2.

Another huge change to the festival was the sudden removal of Cebuano artists from the lineup. From the original eight acts, only Urbandub, Franco, Cookie$, and Mandaue Nights were able to perform.

On January 14, three of the Cebu-based artists posted separate statements on their social media pages, apologizing for not performing as promised. All of them cited factors that were “beyond their control”.

“We’ve prepared a good show for everyone but we’ll make it up to you guys,” promised Three Legged Men.

Alt pop duo Sepia Times were already at the venue but were unable to perform. “We really did want to see all your faces and play our music for you,” they said.

The Sundown also reached out to their fans. “We also appreciate everyone who messaged us to let us know that they’re out there waiting for us to perform while braving the crowd and the venue situation,” they wrote.

The incident fueled the decades-old strain between Manila-based and Visayas-Mindanao-based musicians. The Sundown’s guitarist, Vincent Eco, couldn’t help but air his sentiments on his Facebook page.

“Yet again, [they] hold concerts in Cebu but made Cebu bands disposable,” he lamented.

On January 17, Eventscape Manila issued an official statement apologizing for and explaining the circumstances that led up to it.

“Our event venue, staging, and programming were significantly impacted due to the poor weather conditions all over Cebu,” they explained. “We also had to comply with sudden regulations to strictly end Day 1 and Day 2 earlier than expected. This forced us to immediately compress show time, resulting to several bands being unable to perform, including some Manila and international artists, not just Cebu bands.”

Eventscape Manila went on to explain that while circumstances pushed them to cut out some bands from the program, they did not mean to snub Cebu-based artists.

“We would like to stress that it was never our intention to insult the international, Cebu, and Manila artists who have graciously accepted our invitation,” they stated. “Nonetheless,  we apologize to everyone, especially to the artists and their disappointed fans.

On the same day, James also issued a separate statement and video apology that was uploaded on Wavy Baby Music Festival’s Instagram page.

"Man, what a crazy, amazing, hectic, wet, and wild weekend we had together at the first ever Wavy Baby Music Festival,” he began. “I just wanted to take this time to say thank you to all the amazing people who came out to experience Wavy Baby with us.”

He explained his reasons for pushing through with the festival despite the unfavorable weather conditions.

"To be honest, leading up to and even on Day 1, I was beyond stressed with all the unforeseen weather issues that made things difficult,” James admitted. “But despite all the challenges that came our way to Sinulog, I decided we need to push through and see Wavy Baby come to life for my amazing team. They worked so hard on this, for my fans and for the others who are part of this amazing experience.”

James also acknowledged the fact that many artists were cut out of the lineup and sent an apology to them.

"I want to give a special shout out and apology to the acts who weren't able to go on stage of Wavy Baby with all the technical requirements, the safety concerns and missteps,” said James. “I apologize to you guys as well to our international and Manila acts… We love you and appreciate you of your understanding of the situation.”

He also thanked and apologized to the Cebu-based artists specifically.

"I would like to sincerely apologize to our Cebu artists for not being able to share the stage with you this time,” James said. “But thank you for allowing us to come and through this amazing experience.”

“I promise we'll make it up to you,” he continued. “You guys are all legends. Thank you."