Organized by the Cultural Affairs Bureau (IC, from the Portuguese acronym), the “2017 Macao International Parade” in celebration of the 18th anniversary of Macao’s Handover to China, will be held on 17 December. This year, the Parade is themed with “features of local districts and historic monuments”, comprising 49 local and 15 foreign participating groups in a total of nearly 1,200 participants.
Local groups responded actively to the call for participation in the Parade, which will feature Cantonese opera, theatre, music, martial arts, stilts, oriental and western modern dance and traditional dance, among others. Local art groups can participate in various categories, including “Themed Parade Group” which allows all groups to compete with other groups and be eligible for awards. On the day of the Parade, performances will be assessed by a specially designated jury, who will select the winners of the “Most Outstanding Theme Award”, the “Most Amazing Costume Award”, the “Most Creative Award”, the “Most Energetic Award”, “Our Parade King Award” and “Our Parade Queen Award”. Participating groups may also choose to take part in the “Artistic Parade Group” which allows participants to work on their own artistic characteristics and compete for the awards, showcasing their creativity without limits. In addition, participating groups may also participate in the “Art Promotion Parade Group”, promoting arts and the Parade close by the community, or in the “Assigned Art Ambassadors” option, in which participating groups will work with schools or community centres, to teach how to produce props and plan the Parade. Through these activities, the organizer hopes to encourage the active participation of the performing groups and transform the Parade into a platform that allows Macao’s art professionals to put their creativity into practice.
The Parade features a number of outstanding foreign participating groups from all over the world, including “Cia de mysterios e Novidades” from Brazil, presenting a musical on stilts; Mexican troupe “Luna Morena Títeres Teatro”, presenting a puppet show; Australian “Snuff Puppets - Daniele Poidomani” who will produce giant themed puppets with youth and local students; Yingge dance – an item of intangible cultural heritage of Chaoshan City of Guangdong Province. The Parade also features the acrobatic troupe “Enigma” from Cape Verde; the group “Pauliteiros de Miranda do Douro” from Portugal; performances by the 2017 representative group of Hong Kong’s “La P en V Innovative Dance Platform”; the “Mirror Walkers” from Austria; the “Pavullese Dancing Group” from Italy; “The Dinosaurs” from Holland; the “Cheerleaders” from Lithuania; the “PLASTICIENS VOLANTS” and the “Flower Parade” from France; and the Shenzhen Xiao Douhao Children’s Theatre, among others.
For more information about the Parade, please visit the Parade webpage at www.icm.gov.mo/macaoparade and the Parade page on Facebook: www.facebook.com/macaoparade.