Chingay Parade, Asia’s largest street performance and float parade, the history of the first Chingay Parade dates back to 4th February 1973, over the past 40years, Chingay Parade has transformed and grown so much during this period of time. From a local flavour to a multi-cultural flavour, with international groups and performers arriving in Singapore and giving the Chingay Parade the fun and excitement of both local and international flavours. Watching Chingay Parade over my years of growing up in Singapore, my first experience getting close to Chingay was in 2009, watching the parade from the side and during 2012 when I attended the media preview of Chingay Parade 2012. Chingay Parade today in Singapore is a uniquely Singaporean Chinese Lunar New Year Tradition, usually held during the first weekend of the Chinese Lunar New Year. The unique flavour of both local multi-cultural and international performers make Chingay Parade one of the brightest and colourful street parade and performances in Asia.
Chingay Parade 2014 was officially my first Chingay Parade inside the main parade event ground, in the thick of the action. I was seated in the Green Sector, with friends DK, Joe, Huishan and Nelson, enjoying the festivities and performances. Chingay 2014 has a extensive list of different performances and parade, the pre-parade segment was the grandest opening in the history of Chingay Parade. One of the key pre-parade segment that I am impressed with was the “Paint With ONE Heart”, showcasing a 360m Batik fabric that flow through the Chingay Parade route, accompanied by multi-cultural performers.
Upon the arrival of the Guest of Honour, Prime Minister Lee on Friday 7th February, the Chingay Parade 2014 kicked off to a roaring start. The performers and floats entered the Parade ground/route, from acts/performances from our local multi-cultural communities. You can’t miss the colourful floats of Chingay Parade, their size, colourful light up and design! I always look forward to the different floats driving through the Chingay Parade ground/route. There is one performance during Chingay Parade that I always like, that’s the Dragon dance performance and the spectators get to see the “Fire” from the Dragons!
One of the exciting local performances that caught my attention was the Singapore Getai “新加坡歌台” with celebrity artistes Liu Ling Ling, Wang Lei, Lee Pei Fen and Rawi Hamin being featured at the Chingay Parade. The Community Puppetry Art with the huge mobile structure and huge puppets was popular with the spectators too! For those spectators close to the parade ground/route, they were able to touch and be up close and personal to the puppets! The Mass Children Ballet Display definitely caught my eye and attention, along with the other spectators too! This was the first time in Chingay Parade history that the Mass Children Ballet made their maiden debut performance! They were beautiful, gorgeous and very graceful to watch in their ballet performances at Chingay Parade 2014.
International performers had been an integral part of Chingay Parade and for Chingay Parade 2014, we were graced and honoured by performers from China, Italy, South Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia and Philippines. With their costumes and performances, they also caught the eyes of the spectators.
Leading and building up to the Grand Finale, performers returned back into the Chingay Parade ground. There were 1,500 Pieces of Community-Knitted Tapestries, big and small, contributed by Constituencies and more than 30 Schools, Organisations and Corporations, along with 2 x 360m long knitted art pieces that signifies a closely-knitted Singapore community. Chingay Parade 2014 – Knit As One, with the spectators standing up and holding the One People scarf above them, a sea of One People community, with the scarfs can be seen and felt, along with the Grand Finale singing and dancing.
Our local multi-cultural and international performers gave Chingay Parade 2014 a memorable time with all their flavours, performances, dances, costumes and singing. They all played a significant and important role to make Chingay Parade fun and colourful. While I may not be able to cover all the different performers and their performances, I will let my photography coverage to showcase the diversity and flavours of the different performers at Chingay Parade 2014. Thank you to all the performers from both local and international communities that grace Chingay Parade 2014, making it spectacular, colourful and fun!
I would like to say a Big Thank You to Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth for the invitation to Chingay Parade 2014! It was a fun time at Chingay Parade 2014, enjoying the performances and photography!
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