Chingay next year to feature float and acts from 1970s
Ong Choon Mui, centre, and other performers present Yesteryears' Chingay in the 70s during a media preview session for Chingay 2016 on Oct 13, 2016. Photo: Jason Quah
SINGAPORE — When the Chingay parade first started in 1973, it was a homespun affair, with performers making their own costumes, simple choreography, and a rehearsal held the day before the actual performance, dancer Madam Ong Choon Mui recalled.
Today, the event held during the annual Chinese New Year period is planned 10 months in advance with at least five full-dressed rehearsals, professional choreography, costume designers, as well as custom-made sets and props.
Madam Ong, 65, will be making a “comeback” herself for the parade’s 45th anniversary, to be part of a 250-strong contingent that will also feature the first float used during Chingay in 1974 — a 9m-long tiger float. There will also be the “flower festive drums” and “boat man” acts seen during the parade in the 1970s.
These details were revealed on Thursday (Oct 13) at the first media preview of Chingay 2017. The parade will be held next year on Feb 10 and 11 at the F1 Pit Building in the Marina Bay area, and will feature 50 performing contingents, or 8,000 performers — the highest number in Chingay’s history, barring the Golden Jubilee edition held in 2015.
In its opening act, spectators can expect to see performers from 12 dance groups balancing and dancing on 600 large crescent-shaped props. “Special effects” of water, fire, wind and snow will be incorporated in another item by 1,000 members from the youth movement of the People’s Association, the organiser of the parade.
For the first time in Chingay, there will also be a marching contingent of 1,500 grassroot leaders carrying banners that they will design themselves.
Costs for Chingay 2017 is expected to remain consistent with what was spent in 2014 and 2016, director of the event Julian Aw said, though he declined to reveal the exact cost.
All 46,000 tickets were sold in each of the parade’s past two editions. The same number of tickets will go on sale today at Sistic, priced from S$28.50 to S$60.
Arising from the ban of firecrackers in 1972, the first Chingay parade on Feb 4, 1973 was held to liven up the festive mood during Chinese New Year. It started as a parade remembered for its lion and dragon dances, and evolved to become a multi-cultural event famed for its colourful floats, stilt walkers, and performances by overseas participants.
Next year’s parade will feature performing groups from seven countries: Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea, Thailand and Yakutia, a republic of Russia.
