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New segment marking Singapore’s bicentennial to feature in National Day Parade 2019

SINGAPORE — To commemorate Singapore’s bicentennial, a special segment featuring organisations from the 1800s that contributed to building Singaporean society will be included in this year’s National Day Parade (NDP), which returns to the Padang after four years.

SINGAPORE — To commemorate Singapore’s bicentennial, a special segment featuring organisations from the 1800s that contributed to building Singaporean society will be included in this year’s National Day Parade (NDP), which returns to the Padang after four years.

The organising committee on Wednesday (May 22) said during a media event that the segment, “Our Bicentennial”, will be included in the prologue of the parade held on Aug 9. The segment will feature eight floats representing organisations such as Tanjong Pagar Dock Company, an early port operator, Singapore Post Office and Singapore General Hospital. A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence, which is organising the NDP, said that further details, such as who will be participating in the floats, will be shared in July.

The bicentennial marks 200 years since Sir Stamford Raffles arrived in Singapore in 1819.

The NDP will this year return to the Padang, which is the field near City Hall, with the theme “Our Singapore”. The NDP was last held at the Padang in 2015 and had been held there every five years since 1995. However, it was brought forward to 2019 to commemorate the bicentennial.

Commenting on the parade, chairman of the NDP 2019 executive committee Brigadier-General Yew Chee Leung said: “As Singapore commemorates our bicentennial, the theme for this year’s NDP is ‘Our Singapore’. We tell our Singapore story, from past to present, and we also look together to our future… We remember the contributions of early generations of Singaporeans and we continue to build Singapore for future generations.”

In addition to the new segment, a mobile column featuring 171 platforms from the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) and the Home Team will feature in the parade, the first time it has done so since the SG50 NDP celebrations in 2015. The mobile column — featuring military vehicles, tanks and the like — will make its way down St Andrew’s Road between the Padang and the National Gallery Singapore during the parade.

The wider public will also get an opportunity to view the mobile column a day after the parade. The mobile column will make its way to National Day carnivals organised by the People’s Association in the heartland areas of Bishan, Geylang Serai, Jurong East, Punggol and Woodlands. The last time a mobile column travelled to the heartlands was in 2010 when it visited Bishan, Choa Chu Kang, Eunos, Sengkang and Woodlands.

The organising committee also launched the theme song for this year’s NDP on Wednesday. Titled “Our Singapore (2019)”, the four-minute song is a medley of two songs from previous parades: “We Will Get There”, which was released in 2002, and “Our Singapore”, which was released in 2015. Composed by singer-songwriter Dick Lee, the song features 27 Singaporean artistes from across different generations “to express their generation’s hopes, dreams and aspirations”. Some of the artistes include Malay rock legend Ramli Sarip, “Queen of Mandopop” Stefanie Sun, bilingual rapper Yung Raja and jazz musician Louis Soliano.

This year’s parade, which will involve about 15,000 participants, volunteers and personnel, will kick off with a prologue and will be followed by six acts. In the first act, volunteers from the SAF and the Home Team will make their inaugural appearance as a marching contingent at the NDP. The second act will feature the mobile column while the third act will celebrate Singapore’s colourful and rich multicultural heritage with ethnic dances by 400 dancers from the People’s Association. The fourth act will showcase a film on the stories of various Singaporeans. The fifth act will feature performances of 900 students from the Ministry of Education while the final act will conclude with a performance of the theme song, the pledge and the national anthem.

Audiences can also look forward to the fireworks display at Marina Bay and the Singapore River towards the end of the parade.

The organising committee encouraged Singaporeans to upload photographs, well-wishes and their reflections on NDP this year on their personal social media accounts with the hashtag #NDP2019 as well as tagging this year’s official NDP accounts on Facebook and Instagram.

Singapore citizens and permanent residents may apply for tickets to watch the two NDP Previews held on July 27 and Aug 3, or the NDP itself from May 23 to June 2. They may do so through the NDP website or through SAM or AXS stations around the island. Successful applicants will be notified by email on June 24.

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