Written by Elizabeth Melinda.
Photography by  Didi Kurniawan.

Picture this: Chingay 2010. Marina Bay, Singapore.

The sun descends, its magnificent shine resting on the calm ripples on the waterfront. Beautiful, just beautiful . . . if we were in Miami! In a few moments, the dusky streets would fill up with people, bright lights, music and large floats of fantasies. Yes, we were in Singapore for the grandest parade in Asia.

As the sun sets, the bay began to fill with thousands of performers (about 7000 in total). The romance of the way was gone—it was time to party!

This year, Chingay 2010 asked for the involvement of undergraduate students to be part of their Indonesian contingent. The Indonesian performing troupe had over 100 slots for Chingay 2010. This was new for us. Being students, it wasn’t an easy decision to make between choosing a Chinese New Year long-week holiday with family, or Chingay.

Mind you, the week of the performance was intense, brutal, tiring, and did I mention intense? This required commitment.

On Wednesday (17/2) we rehearsed at the venue (F1 pit) with the Thailand contingent. We didn’t really know why since we were supposed to be paired up with Bhutan. Anyway, we were briefed by the organisers on what to expect on the parade. The bad news is we have to run into one section within one minute, perform for another minute and exit the section in one minute as well. You think it’s easy, eh? Wait till you read how far we had to do it.

Thursday (18/2) was the final dress rehearsal for all of us. The parade will begin on the next day (Friday) and Saturday. The full dress rehearsal started at about 7pm. The representative and the main performers from Indonesia—The Solo Batik Carnival—joined us that day, complete with their costumes and musical instruments. There were some students (all girls; I wonder why?) from a secondary school at Pondok Indah, Jakarta who joined us.

When the Solo Batik Carnival performing troupe donned their costumes, we were astonished. They towered over us with magnificent headdresses and glamorous ensembles. Their costume was mostly made of batik (duh, its Batik carnival!), weighing between a few kilograms to 25 kg—the heaviest costume in the bunch.

On Friday and Saturday we gathered at F1 pit around 6.30pm. While we waited for the festival to start, we took pictures with each other, naturally. The volunteers from Singapore wore their best batik outfits, carrying whatever props available. It was a dazzling night.

We were so proud of our Solo Batik Carnival team. They exude magnetism. They were really eye catching. A lot of people wanted to take pictures with them. Their dress epitomized the richness of our Indonesian culture.

The Solo team lead the way, followed by the secondary students, then us. The Solo team, well-seasoned in street carnivals, said that Chingay was one of the hardest festival to do. Why? There were six sections, and, as I said, in each section we had to perform, then run a bit to the next section within a very short amount of time. All that running made Chingay a more difficult performance compared to the whopping 67km parade they did in the past. It redefined the word “express exercise”. Did I mention that a few of Solo performers fell unconscious after the parade? Yeah, it was tough.

We did not wear any heavy costume but it was so tiring for us too. Our cheeks were sore from smiling. Cameras were everywhere. In the end, we were so happy and proud to be part of the biggest parade in Asia. The party was closed with fireworks!

Who knows, maybe next year, we will do it again . . .