We celebrated Singapore Golden Jubilee NDP in advance last Saturday, and we can already proclaimed 2015’s NDP the best one so far.
The storyline, the vintage parade, the jets, helicopters and tanks rumbling mere meters away from our Grandstand. There is something for everyone. Fireworks, oldies goodies songs, and the spontaneous audience.
We feel you, Singapore!
(Chinook Time 6.51pm)
Last Saturday, we joined countless other families (and a cohort of Primary 5 students) to celebrate National Day at the Padang.
One People, One Nation, One Singapore. Does not matter race, religion and language, we were all wearing Red and White last Saturday.
Families waited in anticipation, as segment after segment of performances kept us engaged. The Sam Willows, and sometimes Mexican waves help too 🙂
Motivators and performers lead the audience to “Chan Mali Chan” yesterday’s favorite Singapore songs.
Red Lions(Time 5.52pm) always attract the crowd’s attention from the moment they leap off. The clear blue sky captured their trails and speedy descent. Audience chorus “OH..oH..Oh..” as Red Lions touch down so gracefully onto the tarmac.
SAF Military Tattoo performance (combined Military Band and Precision Drill Squad) entertains with their formations and synchronisation. Look out for the classical instruments (Gu3 Zheng1) at the rear.
Meanwhile, Boon Yee and Boon Xin eagerly posing with one of the motivators, who were busy giving away balloons and cheering the audience.
As the Black Knights (Time 6.15pm) flew a Five Stars tribute for MM Lee, we remembered Singapore’s outpouring of emotions in 2015 Mar at Padang. This is also the same spot where we first heard Lee Kuan Yew shout “MERDEKA!” from the steps of Cityhall.
An empty seat, a stalk of flower, a tribute to MM Lee.
Since Singapore’s independence, MM Lee has never missed a single NDP Parade before 🙁
Thank you MM Lee. One People One Nation One Singapore.
The integrated show leads us through Six chapters, from Singapore’s early beginning to her future aspirations. Details at this link ndp.org.sg.
Chapter 1 Beginnings
A prince from Sumatra, Sang Nila Utama first discovered our island, followed by Sir Stamford Raffles.
As the story unfolds, our forefathers (early immigrants from China, India and archipelago) streamed to Singapore to start their new lives. Hawkers, rickshaw pullers, coolies, and other professions came to our shore (Durians too!)
Vintage parade must be one of the highlight of NDP 2015. As 2015 is Singapore’s Golden Jubilee NDP, some of the participants had marched in Singapore’s National Day parades from the 60s! The audience clap especially loud when our Vintage parade (Grandpas) filed past.
So nostalgic to see Police wearing khaki shorts, 警察穿短裤! (just like Ch8 period dramas)
Chapter 2 Progress
Parade form up, comprising members from Statboards, private enterprises, Hometeam and SAF.
Took the opportunity to share with the kids, Red berets are the Commandos and those smart guys in all whites(shoes too) are Naval divers.
One second, we see the “50” F16s (Time 6.53pm until 7.08pm) on the LED screens, the next second they flew over MBS towards Padang. The crowd goes Wow as the first wave of F16s approaches.
Non-stop action from the fly past! Plane and helicopters roar overhead, afterburners full blast! We have never seen such a huge gathering of RSAF assets in Singapore’s history. Formidable sight!
Do look out for the Airbus A380 on 01 and 09Aug!
This F15 pilot wants to say Hello to you! Click on image below for RSAF F15SG’s cockpit video.
(image credit RSAF Fanpage)
Love how the screen seems to extend performance to audience!
– 25pounder Gun (Time 6.57pm) (estimated)
– Feu-de-joie (Time 7.02pm) (Guard of Honor contingents firing into the sky)
Defence Minister, flanked by CDF and Parade Commander waving to the crowd. During Dr Ng’s Guards of Honour inspection, the 25pounder ceremonial guns were firing away near Merlion.
Marching past, making way for the Mobile Column. We can already hear the 60 tons engines rumbling from a distance!
Chapter 3 – Strength
Boon Yee liked the Mobile column segment, he remembered all the special vehicles from an earlier media event at Kallang Leisure Dome.
Mobile Column gif!(Time 7.21pm until 7.35pm) Love the endless vehicles passing by, we are impressed with SAF and Hometeam’s capabilities!
Stephanie Sun and Kit Chan will be performing our favourite songs on actual day, I am looking forward to “Home 家“.
As night falls, love how special lightings are casted on National Gallery’s facade. Cityhall’s Dome looks especially mesmerizing (and colonial) under the moonlight.
Chapter 4 – Unity – Many Cultures, One Nation
Folks from Soka and others will form up words on the Padang like “Majullah”. This chapter hopes to showcase that Singaporeans are united in common ideals and goals of building a home that belongs to all of us, regardless of race, language or religion.
From our seats, we noticed new LED screens forming an arc from left to right. There is a theater-feel as we watched the “story” unfold from one end to the other 🙂
Chapter 5 – Identity – Uniquely Singaporean
Can you recognised some of the icons from our growing up years? Expect to see some Singlish too, and kids did not understand “Blur like Sotong” haha.
Chapter 6 – Onwards – Bright Future
Love the dancing light tubes from 600 students. When the performers are in sync, it is pretty amazing and adorable sight. We had a few giggles when someone forgot to “change” colour hee hee 🙂
Quite cool to see the colourful stickmens.
Grand Finale (Time 8.12pm)
Fireworks leading to the climax of 2015 Golden Jubilee National Day Parade.
Our happy family, super proud to be Singaporeans.
We heard around 200,000 people will be crowding the Marina Bay area to celebrate 09Aug.
After all, how many times do we get to celebrate a nation’s Golden Jubilee?
Kudos to all the organisers and performers! They have sacrificed so many weekends to present Singaporean’s Golden Jubilee show.
(image credit ndp.org.sg)
Thank you Mindef (Accord and NEXUS) for the invite, 2015 Golden Jubilee NDP is the best NDP performance thus far.
Pop by the following links for more NDP updates :
– NDP Website and Fanpage
– A few weeks earlier, we rode a Bionix (From Mobile Column) into Town
– 2014’s NDP Parade (we drifted with RSN Divers’ RHIB at Marina Bay!)
– 2010 Mobile Column Rocks too!
– More 2015 NDP NE3 photos have been uploaded onto our fanpage album
What made our experience more memorable this year is our kids got an opportunity to pack some Funpacks too!
* All our NDP 2015 events can be found under #NDP2015 (NE3, Mobile Column, NDP Funpacks)
