I was lucky enough to play guinea pig – attended the rehearsal on Wednesday. I had to use a lot of imagination, visualizing how it would be if Sean Kingston was there, the overwhelming fireworks, the VVIPs. The best were the substitutes (of the YOG and IOC chairmen) saying “Beginning of speech” and that was it. The audience was tickled.
Can you spot the monster/ET in the picture?
We were all quite enthusiastic in the beginning then started feeling sleepy, playing with their handphones, taking wu liao pictures (me) and some just left halfway. There was even a queue at the exit just about an hour into the show. The audience was invited to do a marina wave which didn’t quite take off, and this 4-step dance which required pushing our palms out towards the air, stretching our out hands when we were already packed shoulder to shoulder… the music throughout the evening was admittedly, nice.
When the flags of participating countries were revealed, I cheered loudly for Sri Lanka since I could relate with them.
In line with the hungry ghost festival, they also have larger than life, multi-racial balloon manipulated by performers, floating around. We were all scared stiff when they came round the audience.
I am still at the end of the day, proud to be a Singaporean, if only the tempo of the national anthem at the ceremony could go faster. The best for the evening was the beautiful skyline and of course, the impressive set.
