Working in front of a mess of electrical stuff, those who you could see were not electricians but dancers from the Indian Culture Association of Macao (ICAM). We were preparing for the Parade during the Lunar New Year on February 3, held by the Macao Government Tourist Office (MGTO).

Around 30 groups of local artists which include ICAM were invited by MGTO to perform on that evening to celebrate the year of the snake and to attract more tourists as well as to develop the multi-cultural art activities. Therefore, performers would put on the most fancy and colorful costumes to participle in this big event in order to create an exciting atmosphere.

Except preparing for the music and choreography, we had spent more time on the electric soldering iron, and cutting wires, rolls of black tape, and packs of LED lights. It was not as easy as what they thought of. Buying the lights, sticking them on costumes, and more complicated connection jobs among lights, wires, batteries and switches were also needed which required some knowledge of physics. We wanted our presentation to be impressively good.

As a non-profit organization which was just founded last year, ICAM did not receive much funding for activities from the government or any other foundations. Due to the limited budget and preparation time provided to performers by MGTO, saving money was a major concern besides giving the best presentation. “It could be better for the parade organizer to provide a factory or shop to help us design and do the lighting decoration since it is both time-consuming and quite exhausting for a small association without any related experience to do these things,” said one ICAM member. “But we are still happy that we can gather together to work and perform for the parade in this Chinese New Year.”

Since it was the first time for the Macao government to hold this Lunar New Year parade, some sessions in the parade were not well organized so that performers were standing and waiting in the cold weather for quite a long time. However, the passion of the performers could not be extinguished, which attracted tourists and Macao citizens gathering along the route of the parade. “It was colorful and stunning,” the president of ICAM, Victor Kumar appreciated this opportunity. “It is good to join this kind of parade to demonstrate different cultures and different people.”