Art breaks free from performance halls and invades all corners of the city, creating unlimited possibilities. The 17th Macao City Fringe Festival, organized by the Cultural Affairs Bureau, is themed “Treasures Hunting” and will be held from 12 to 21 January 2018, featuring a total of 23 wonderful programmes, as well as 10 outreach activities, such as workshops, talks and art critique, among others, leading the public to uncover the city’s treasures and explore overlooked values in the interaction between people.
The 10-day long Macao City Fringe Festival offers creativity and surprises: Jin-Tang, departing from a name , the name of Taiwan creator Ma Wei Yuan’s grandfather, lets the audience take a peek at the most intimate anatomy of an individual’s life experience through body language and instant synthetic images; the show Idiot - Syncrasy, presented by Igor and Moreno from the United Kingdom, who believe they can change the world by presenting a performance, uses rhythmic body movements and common elements of two ethnic dances to express a yearning for the purest human nature; My Old Man is a Bus Driver, presented by the Dream Theater Association, takes the audience on a two-hour drive with a retired bus driver, wandering around areas of Macao that have likely been forgotten.
The Festival also features other excellent programmes, including The Auction of Love Stories, a performance inviting the public to submit items and love stories for auction, allowing the audience to give each one a value; Niyaro: Yearning for Homeland, calls for the identity recognition buried deep within each person through chanting, dancing and ritual ceremonies held at Hac Sa Beach; You Can Sleep Here, converts streets into beds and invites the public to gather in a mysterious place (known as abandoned public places), thereby tearing down the barriers between private and public spaces; and in Bear with Us, three giant bears stroll around the city and may suddenly appear next to you, causing pleasant surprises.
In addition to an array of creative performances, the Macao City Fringe Festival also offers workshops, talks and art critique, among other outreach activities, aimed to offer the public an even richer and varied arts experience. It also sets up the “Fringe Intelligence Division” to train Fringe reporters who, under the guidance of instructors from Macao, Hong Kong and Taiwan, will be able to learn about the different methods of cultural and art production works and explore the possibility to create local media dedicated to arts and culture.
Tickets for the 17th Macao City Fringe Festival are available at the Macau Ticketing Network from 10am on 8 December (Friday). Telephone and online bookings are available from 12pm on the same day. 24 hours ticketing hotline: 2855 5555; ticketing website: www.macauticket.com. Holders of ICBC Credit Card, ICBC Debit Card and ICBC Prepaid Card can enjoy a 12% discount on ticket purchases over MOP200. Registration for the workshops can be made online from 9am on 8 December (Friday) or by phone from 9am on 11 December (Monday); seats are limited and are distributed on a first-come, first-served basis. Online registration: www.icm.gov.mo/eform/event. For enquiries, please contact IC through tel. no. 8399 6699, during office hours. For more information about the programme, please visit the Macao City Fringe Festival’s webpage at www.macaucityfringe.gov.mo.
The 17th Macao City Fringe Festival Art Salon was held on 5 December (Tuesday), at 3pm, at the Village Mall, counting with the presence of the Vice-President of IC, Kent Ieong Chi Kin; the Acting Head of the Division of Performing Arts, Tong Pui I; as well as representatives of art organizations and art professionals.