Hope you all have had a wonderful week of celebration especially those back in Brunei! As for me, on New Year's day I had a lecture from 7-9pm -___-; And thinking that the celebration in London was on Saturday, Shin, my sis and I went to Trafalgar Square only to see them setting up the stage and booths.
We went the next day, on the 6th February 2011. We kinda missed the front bits cause we were late lol. I missed the lion and dragon dance! OMG epic sadface! Anyhoo, the place was packed :S The booths and ideal viewpoints were swamped with people we couldn't see anything and decided to stand far from the stage, slowly inching forwards when people moved out of the way ahah.
They had dance, music, aerobatics, even magic and comedy performances finishing with a finale of fireworks!
Beware this is an image heavy post!
Also thanks to my sis for providing most of the pictures! My camera died because I didn't charge it -___- sadrife.
Actually when we went for lunch at Queensway, we saw a lion dancer parade complete with drums and cymbals! That lifted my festive mood quite a lot!
Random dragon thing?
I lol'd when I saw this giant oyster sauce decor.
Lanterns strewn over the lamp. Actually, Chinatown has MASSIVE amounts of lanterns, it was a great sight! Should take photos when I get the chance.
You get to see kids sitting on their dad's shoulders to get a good view of the performances. And many had that dragon ornament thing we didn't get to buy!!!!!!
Up the stairs... to the top left and right are packed with people too, you just can't see them from down here.
People in front of the stage, the organisers did a great job adding the two big screens to the left and right of the stage so people won't push and shove. It was a surprisingly loose crowd for the most part.
Shot of the stage, Yeah Met Police were sponsors and at the end they even advertised to ask you to volunteer as a Special Constable lol.
National Gallery - behind us, in front of the stage, sunset.
Trio musicians playing traditional Chinese instruments
Resorting to taking photo of the screen lol...
Vase juggler. He was impressive! If you ever owned a vase like that, you'd know it is freaking heavy to juggle. And he tosses it up with one hand and catches it with his head! Bad quality photo though.... My camera not meant for sniping.
Now what I said about heavy, see the bottom left one? That one's VERY heavy. He still tosses it up with one hand and catches it with his neck. It was kinda bone chilling after thinking about it...
Solo on the "pi-pah"
This is the dance called the "Golden Buddha Dance" I think. In my opinion, it was the most interesting dance I saw that day ahaha.
The host and hostess of the event. I say they were pleasing on the eyes and ears; good job to them!
During the intermission there was..... OMGOMG LION DANCE :DDDDDDDD
Solo on the Chinese harp thingie? Forgot the name =S
This girl performs an aerobatic act where she balances on one hand. Amazing balance and upper body strength!
Amazing right?
These guys did a dance inspired by the Great Desert or something. They looked like Ryouga from Ranma 1/2 to me LOL
Last of the trio solos the flute. My fave instrument of the lot!
The songs she played were also more festive. Excellent!
Finally we had... what the- Po!? From Kung Fu Panda!
Po tries to teach the host Panda style kung fu.
The proceeds to spar him in a poke-fest.
Kung Fu Panda dominates!
Just before the fireworks, the lion dancers did a traditional climb to release a banner!
The pictures are not so hot because lighting was poor :(
This was followed by fireworks! And that was that!
The wind was pretty strong that evening, so the fireworks went out pretty fast after being launched. The wind conditions might've played a factor to the lion dancers choosing a lower climb. lol
So there you have it, the festive air in London! My camera died at the Buddha dance part, and the photos after that were mostly taken by my sis.
So tell me how you spent your CNY days. Anything amazing to share?
All the best! Thanks for reading!
~Fox
Interesting event. I don't recall seeing any such events in Brunei during the chinese new year, in public at least...and yay PO!
ReplyDeleteThis year's CNY was good for me so far, partly coz of the non-stop free sessions of fooooood day after day~ hahaha also some of my relatives came back from Singapore and i bought a new camera last December, so i was able to capture some epic moments when i couldn't before :D i've probably snapped over 500 photos. Overall, certainly better than last year :3
Hahaha they were advertising Kung Fu Panda 2 quite a lot. Brunei don't have meh? I thought Chung Hwa has that kind of CNY event, dunno if I'm wrong XD
ReplyDeleteWaaao sounds like you had an awesome CNY eh? 500 pics omg. That'll be a pain to sort out hahaha. I'm planning to get a good camera when I can too haha.
That's the things, they hold these events in schools, ppl's home, shops and hotels but not in public like the 'Padang'...
ReplyDeletei dont mind sorting, it's the space that i mind!
each pic is about 3-4mb!
Hahaha, Well the school ones are generally public. So are shops and hotels :P Even if it was at the Padang it's not like they'll run around like a parade; most likely will be on stage like the one here.
ReplyDeleteLOL yeah that's the sorting I was talking about. have to resize all that is desired :P