Organised by the Cultural Affairs Bureau (IC, from the Portuguese acronym), the “Parade through Macau, Latin City”, in celebration of the 15th Anniversary of Macao’s Handover to China, took place on December 14, beginning at the Ruins of St. Paul with the opening ceremony “Launch into Space”. The Parade gathered the best local and foreign artists, in a total of over two Thousand artists that performed in streets filled with Latin charm, cheerfully singing and dancing through St. Lazarus’ Quarter up to Tap Seac Square for the grand joint performance “Peace, Love and Cultural Integration”, allowing the whole city to participate and celebrate the occasion of the anniversary of Macao’s handover to China. It attracted viewership of over eighty thousand including the audience present at the parade, those who watched the live televised broadcast and the simulcast on several outdoor screens at various locations.
The “Parade through Macau, Latin City” is themed around “Peace, Love and Cultural Integration”, sharing the idea of “An Annual Celebration for the Whole City - VIVA”. This edition featured more than 50 local and foreign performing groups, in a total of over two thousand people that joined VIVA in a fantastic journey of discovery and exploration of live. Officiating the opening ceremony were Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture of the Macau S.A.R. Government, Cheong U; Secretary General of the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in the Macao SAR, Sun Da; Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China in the Macao SAR, Hu Zhengyue; Consul General of the Republic of Cuba in Guangzhou, Félix Raúl Rojas Cruz; Consul General of the Republic of Ecuador in Guangzhou, Mariella Molina; Consul General of Spain in Hong Kong, Juan Manuel López-Nadal, and the President of the Cultural Affairs Bureau of the Macao S.A.R. Government, Ung Vai Meng.
“Interstellar Journey” celebrates handover; city participates in collective joy
The Parade began at 4pm with the opening ceremony “Interstellar Journey”, featuring Spanish group Cal y Canto Teatro’s kites, a symbol of aliens coming to Earth, and the rhythm of bell sounds by the Macao Handbells Association, sending energy and enthusiasm onto space, while the VIVAs celebrated the handover together with the artists and the crowd. Dressed-up groups arrived one by one, wearing cheerful clothes full of Latin charm and carrying extraordinary balloons that resembled sea creatures, revealing their skills at the Ruins of St. Paul, setting off this party in space.
This edition told the tale of a party in space, describing the story of the birth of alien life in a faraway galaxy that spreads the ancient and unique Latin culture, but whose world, due to the impact of the quick technological development, has lost colour and shine. Luckily, on Earth, VIVA, the Parade’s mascot, launches the power of “Peace, Love and Cultural Integration” onto space, helping the culture of alien life recovers its colours and prolonging joy, to the world’s jubilation.
Along the Parade’s route an array of performances took place, including colourful face painting offered to the audience, at Largo de Santo António, Rua de Sanches de Miranda and Calçada da Igreja de São Lázaro, by the hand of participants in the previously held “Face Painting Workshop”, given by Hong Kong and Macao stage make-up artists, Sunny Chan Ming Long. Several groups gave excellent performances throughout the Parade’s route, exciting and allowing the public to fully participate in this festive occasion and creating a joyful atmosphere in all streets and alleys.
Closing Ceremony “Peace, Love and Cultural Integration”; extraordinary feast of joy
Participating groups presented at Tap Seac Square, at 6pm, the closing joint performance “Peace, Love and Cultural Integration”. One by one, the groups took to the stage, hypnotising the audience with seven successive performances and earning an enthusiastic response from the public. The closing ceremony features a stage fitted with a spaceship-shaped raising platform, highlighting the sense of space and strengthening the interactivity between dancers and multimedia. Song and dance under dazzling lights spread throughout the venue, allowing all present to feel up in the space. Also in this ceremony, multimedia images of the “Silk Maritime Road” took the audience through a time tunnel, taking as theme for several ballets the concepts of “light”, “shadow dances” and “electrodes”, with one hundred dancers dressed as aliens and, with the help of VIVA, collecting the whole city’s power of “Peace, Love and Cultural Integration” and sending it onto space, helping the planet recover its colour and putting back a smile on the aliens’ faces. Tap Seac Square also featured sea creatures’ balloons as well as a two-headed twenty metres-long dragon, a spectacular sight that earned the audience’s applause. In the evening, participating groups took part in a banquet offered by the Tourist Office, celebrating the success of the Parade.
Remarkable local groups perform abroad; favourable reviews of promotional events
Present at the Parade were groups from Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Italy, Panama, Venezuela, France and Spain, among other countries and regions, the groups including Group Folklore Sun Argentina, Latin Group, French Les Monts Rieurs and Plasticiens Volants, Spanish Batucada Villa Pipol, from the Canary Islands, and Teatro Cal y Canto as well as Indonesian Red Batik Solo Community. Mainland China was represented by Maogusi dances of the Tujia ethnic group, from Hong Kong came Happy Clowns and Fantasy Puppet Theatre, with further performances by the Formosa Indigenous Song & Dance Troupe and over 40 groups from Macao. Local groups that stood out in this edition of the Parade will have to chance to perform abroad next year with the support of the organisation and promote Macao’s cultural characteristics.
The “Parade through Macao, Latin City” is the biggest outdoor event in celebration of Macao’s handover to China. This year, the organisation prepared several promotion activities for the event, namely the “Press Conference on the Parade through Macao, Latin City – VIVA Launch into Space”, a Parade Promotion Day and leaflets on the theme of alien life specially commissioned to local illustrators. It also invited local musicians to compose the event’s music theme, mobilised VIVA Ambassadors to provide services to the event, organised a photography contest open to all, promoted the Parade in the areas included in the Parade route and raised tourists’ enthusiastic support, received support of Air Macau in the promotion of the Facebook game “Find VIVA and win airplane tickets” , which attracted nearly 4,000 participants joining the game, and established cooperation with several television channels for the broadcast of special programmes to promote the event, among others, capturing the attention of the whole city.
In order to spread and promote the festive atmosphere of the Parade, on the event day, CCTV-13 and CCTV-NEWS live broadcasted the Parade on their special programme, taking the joyous occasion to other parts of the world. Likewise, screens for live broadcast were set up outdoors at Senado Square, Rotunda de Carlos da Maia, Areia Preta Garden and Rua de D. Belchior Carneiro, among other places.
A TDM – Teledifusão de Macau S.A. broadcast the Parade live on its Chinese and Portuguese channels on December 14, from 4 to 7pm, and on TDM HD from 4 to 7.30pm. Hong Kong’s TVB channel transmitted, on December 12, at 7.30pm, on the programme “Scoop”, a foretaste of the Parade, and, on December 20 at 3.30pm-4pm, it will broadcast a Parade Special Programme, taking even further the city’s celebrations of Macao’s handover to China.
The “Parade through Macao, Latin City” was organised by the Cultural Affairs Bureau and co-organised by the Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau, the Macao Government Tourist Office, the Public Security Police Force, the Transport Bureau, the Fire Services Bureau, the Education and Youth Affairs Bureau of Macao and the Macao Association for the Promotion of Exchange between Asia-Pacific and Latin America. It was also supported by various organisations, including the Macao General Union of Neighbourhood Associations, the Macao Sam Pa Mun Residents Mutual Aid Association, the Macao Soi Ho Cheok Residents Mutual Aid Association, as well as VIVA Ambassadors supporters, namely the Recreation Club of the Bank of China – Macao Branch, the Macao Community Youth Volunteers Development Association, the General Volunteers Association of Macao and the Association of Social Service Volunteers Macao. This edition of the Parade also received full support of Companhia de Transportes Aéreos Air Macau, S.A.R.L. TDM – Teledifusão de Macau S.A. did the live broadcast.
