Fields Avenue is the name of a major street running through Balibago area of Angeles City in the Philippines. It is the center of the red light district and the bar scene of the biggest entertainment district of the Philippines. The name derives from the common military practice of naming roads adjacent to airfields as "Field" Street or "Field avenue". The name evolved to become Fields Avenue.
Philippines was an American colony from to Bars on Fields Avenue catering to the single American defense personnel, who worked in the adjacent Clark Air Base, first emerged in During s and 50s there were only 3 such bars just outside the main gate of the airbase, By early s, the Fields Avenue developed as a street lined with several bars.
From November to April America fought Vietnam war , as the number of American troops in this war grew, more and more forces were deployed at Clark airbase or routed through it. By the s, there were more than bars and prostitution joints along Fields Avenue. With the withdrawal of American defense forces from Clark in , many of these establishments changed hands but continued to do business. As Clark was turned into a Special Economic Zone SEZ , these bars and prostitution joints changed their clientele to suit their new customers - Japanese and Korean businessmen.
Restaurants serving food from these countries began to appear and signboards in these languages were put up. The period from saw further expansion of these joints, as the area was relabeled as an "entertainment district". While prostitution was officially banned, girls working here were simply redesignated as " Guest Relations Officers " GRO and prostitution continued in practice.
Since then, bars and prostitution joints have continued to proliferate and expand, the extent of these establishments has continued further on both sides of Fields Avenue and many smaller streets off Fields Avenue also sport smaller such establishments. In , a section of Fields Avenue at the end where it meets the N2 MacArthur Highway was named as "Walking Street", mimicking Walking Street in Pattaya ; this section was made pedestrians only, with road traffic banned from 6 pm to 6 am.
