2009 Singapore Marina Bay NY Countdown: A Blast!

This year, we chose to take part of the Marina Bay Countdown (MBC). We were a bit disappointed with our choice last year, when we opted to go to Vivo City.

We almost didn't make it, because the Sistic website was showing that the Party@The Float was canceled, without clearly indicating that the countdown was going to push through. Good thing Channel 5 continued advertising the event, which prompted me to go beyond the first few clicks in the Sistic website to make me realize my earlier mistake. I learned from a number of friends however, that I wasn't the only one who misunderstood the ambiguous message.

Anyway, the MBC was definitely a blast! Spectators started queuing before 7 p.m. Young and old, male and female, Singaporeans and foreigners alike, thousands of people chose to leave the comfort of their homes to participate in the countdown.

That may not have been enough to fill the 30,000 seating-capacity in the world's largest floating stage. But for those who chose to take part in the biggest New Year’s Eve celebration event in the country, they couldn't have been disappointed.

There was a bit of a ruckus between 9:00 - 9:30 p.m. when a number of people crossed over from the blue benches to the yellow ones through an opening in the barriers. They must have misunderstood the emcee's call for people to find good seats. The emcee was explaining that rows nearer the stage would definitely give them a good view of the celebrity show but not a very good one of the fireworks and that no one would not be allowed to changed seats once the fireworks display started. The exodus ended with some people returning to their original seats and some getting a better deal.

The televised show started at 10:30 p.m., but performances by Ash (from By Definition) and the band Rivermaya rocked the house as early as one hour before. The band from the Philippines and recipient of the prestigious Best Asian Artist Award, Rivermaya also sang a song in their mother tongue, much to the delight of Filipinos present among the crowd.

As promised, performances by showbiz personalities dazzled the audience. Celebrities who were present include Gurmit Singh, Michelle Chia, Fiona Xie, Utt, Michelle Chong and Adrian Pang.

The spotlight momentarily left the showbiz stars when the fireworks display started.






What word describes the fireworks best but spectacular? The oohs and ahhs of the people watching the 8-minute display definitely indicated their approval.

The queue for food was awfully long and painfully slow. If there was anything that needs improvement, this would be it. The servers were clearly at a loss on how to handle the huge volume of orders: spilling beverages in panic, forgetting to display new stock coming in, not having enough change, being unsure of what exactly they had ran out of. A few customers couldn't help voicing out their frustrations after queuing for over 45 minutes and finding out the food or beverage they wanted were out of stock.

As far as national TV is concerned, the show concluded with the stars gathered on stage while Rivermaya rocked the house with another song.

Ash performed the closing act as spectators left the venue.

We ended up taking a long walk to the MRT station, among with several thousand others.

We got to Pasir Ris before 2 a.m. and had to take a walk all the way to the house because no more bus services were available. We already anticipated this, as this is exactly how it went last year. How could we complain?

Happy New Year!

***

I'm evaluating a multi-media course on blogging from the folks at Simpleology. For a while, they're letting you snag it for free if you post about it on your blog.

It covers:

• The best blogging techniques.
• How to get traffic to your blog.
• How to turn your blog into money.

I'll let you know what I think once I've had a chance to check it out. Meanwhile, go grab yours while it's still free.