Right after the bloggers’ party, I was invited to attend the official press conference yesterday, too.

The press conference was a little more direct, though; it was held at the venue of the festival’s launch: *SCAPE. This time, though, the conference was aimed at the press people (and bigwigs), so namecard exchanging was had.

…yeah, I really should get namecards made for the blog. ( =3=)

Anyway, apart from the juicy information (scroll past if you’re impatient), a few event trailers were screened, and the organisers presented tokens of appreciation (beach flip-flops framed in a glass panel) to their sponsors.

Also, the belly-dancing segment caught me completely off guard. >_>

And now for the juicy information!

COSMO Youth Parade

The COSMO Youth Parade is a parade, organised by Mascot Parade Limited, in which anyone can take part. It’s pretty much a continuation of last year’s Mascot Parade, so you know the drill: march from point A (*SCAPE Playspace) to point B (Mandarin Gallery). You don’t have to wear a costume to join in (though it’s encouraged).

The parade will be held on the launch day of the whole festival, which is the 3rd of July this year.

There are other non-parade highlights too, such as the following:

• Moe Moe Kyun Maid Cafe – Yep, it’s making a comeback from its AFA debut. I can’t say any more though; go poke oOgA or something.
• Bushiroad Card Game Tournament – I’d imagine Weiβ Schwarz players are looking forward to this.
• Gundam Caravan
• COSMO Bazaar – “Key retailers” will be setting up shop and selling products, attire and collectibles aimed at cosplayers and costumers.
• COSMO Costume Competition – A costume competition for everyone. There will be 4 categories to participate in:
  • Anime & Manga
  • Comics & Cartoons
  • PC & Console Games
  • Movies & TV Shows

  The top 3 winners for each category will win cash prizes ($500, $300 and $100 for 1st, 2nd and 3rd places respectively), and the top winners for each category will stand a chance to win a pair of tickets to Japan.

  Participants will also get a chance to talk to and learn from famous cosplayers such as Alodia, her sister Ashley, Reno, and Clive.

  You can find out more here (or at the SGCafe thread), or register by clicking the contest image below.

  

• Night Concert – Local anime and J-Rock bands will also make their debut while the moon is up. It’ll probably be like Street Festival previously.

Speaking of Street Festival…

U@SHINE

U@SHINE, organised by Singapore Street Festival, will be held from the 25th of June to the 11th of July at The Cathay and Plaza Singapura. It’s a little early for a festival event, but sure, okay.

It’s basically a mish-mash of urban culture performances which include the following:

• WORDS! Rap Competition
• Asia Global Bellydance Competition – I can imagine the wall of photographers.
• WOW! Band Competition
• J-Rock Band Performances
• Yo-yo Performances

The Big Groove 2010 – Year of the Champions

The Big Groove, organised by O School Limited and held at 7.30PM at the Singapore Expo on the 11th of July, is Asia’s most awaited hip-hop dance convention, and will showcase performances of Quest Crew, WCO (Wrecking Crew Orchestra), Hilty and Bosch, Joyce and the Boys, and more.

Quest Crew are the winners of the third season of America’s Best Dance Crew, while WCO and Hilty and Bosch are the winners of Japan Dance Delight. Joyce and the Boys are a local dance crew who won the inaugural Singapore Dance Delight and came in 3rd at the World Hip-Hop Championships at Las Vegas.

Specialty dance workshops will also be held from the 8th to the 10th of July at O School Studios in *Scape. Guest instructors, such as Lee (who won a Special Award from Japan Dance Delight) and Dominique from WCO, will be invited to teach anyone interested.

Community Service Projects by SMU

SMU will be taking on 4 community service projects during (and beyond) the Youth Festival. While the majority of you readers may not be interested (especially since you can’t exactly participate in all of them), I figured I’d just describe what they’re up to, just in case:

• starringSMU’10 – A carwash project held on the 24th and 25th of July at Holland Village. Tickets are priced at $8 each, and proceeds will go towards helping My Buona Vista Place.
• SMU Gives Back – This one’s an island-wide initiative to allow SMU students to help the needy at over 10 beneficiaries.
• !nspirar – Students will set out to organise a city trail along the Singapore River on the 1st of August. Funds raised will go towards the Muscular Dystrophy Association of Singapore.
• Ballooning Bliss 2 – A gigantic balloon sculpture will be erected and put on display at the Jurong Point Shopping Center on the 24th of July. Tickets will be priced at $2 each and proceeds will go towards En Community Services Society.
• Rolling Good Times – Volunteers from all the afore-mentioned projects will pool their resources and organise a fund-raising fun fair on SMU campus grounds on the 8th of August. Tickets are priced at $10 each (including a complimentary Happy Meal), and proceeds will go towards the Ronald McDonald Children’s Charity.

Well, that’s pretty much it. You’ll also be getting a special pass at the event, and if you get 2 stamps on it (one from the COSMO Youth Parade, one from the Urban Beach Games, both on the same day), you’ll get to redeem a free movie pass. If you’re among the first 5,000, that is. Just dropping a tip here. ;D

Oh, and the official end date of the SHINE Youth Festival is on the 24th of July.

I’ll be posting the event schedule of the entire festival in part 3…right after I take care of a few news posts. Stay tuned!

I was invited to attend a bloggers’ party (along with nutcase and oOgA) for the event a couple of days ago.

The event was held in a Starbucks, and was a rather informal presentation on youth lifestyle and some coverage on the festival.

They showcased some home-made videos too, but I fail to recall what they were about, actually. >_<

After the talk and video presentation, the organisers let all the attendees try out dancing and cosplay. Pretty basic stuff, really.

There was a video camera set up too, so attendees could spend half a minute voicing out their views about the festival, or anything else if they didn’t feel like talking about the festival in particular.

To be honest and totally frank, there wasn’t much to see at the party. However, if you take into account that the event was targeted towards the typical casual teen and aimed to get them to enjoy trying out culture possibly alien to them, they did a good job at that. =D

The attendees (including yours truly) didn’t leave empty handed, though. They handed us a goodie bag with (get this) beach wear to go along with the “Urban Beach” event held during the launch of the festival on the 3rd of July.

I’ll elaborate on the event later (heck I’ll post the entire event schedule) in a later post, fret not. =3

You can check out The Banzai! Effect’s coverage of the event; it’s a lot less wordy and a lot more image-spammy.

In the previous regarding the SHINE Youth Mascot Parade (SYMP) 09 event, I’ve talked about what you got to see during the event (not everything though =3 ), from bands playing wonderful music to mascot walking around promoting about stuffs like company or games… Well for this very post, its about the cosplayers and mascots who came down for the event and dressed up as one of the characters from either animes/mangas/movies etc..

Well, without further ado, I would like to present to you my gallery of cosplay & mascot pics taken during the SYMP 09.. Enjoy~~

It was quite exciting when the Shine Youth Mascot Parade (SYMP) ’09 event was held at the last Saturday (27th June).. I was kinda nervous on that day since it was my book out day as well; I thought I would have missed some of the wonderful mini events or worst couldn’t attend it at all.. Luckily, luck was somewhat in my favour as I rushed down to check out whats hot (not literally) and interesting.. XD

The location of the SYMP was at Ngee Ann City Civic Plaza (below), quite a good place to host such big event.. The weather was quite suitable too, bright and sunny and cloudy (and very hot in the afternoon too X3 )..

There was quite alot to see during the event, from rockbands playing wonderful songs (below) to watching a group of martial artists breaking bricks to even LEGO robots battling each other in “ROBOGLADIATORS”.. It was quite interesting to see so much diversity in talents during the event..

Well, I would like to leave you all to see some of the pictures I took during the event.. Hope you like them.. ^^

The highlight of the event was the SYMP Parade March at about 4pm+.. This is when alot of participants, from cosplayers, event groups, mascots and other groups walked from in front of Wisma Atria all the way to the stage area (Zone B)..

It was quite fun watching the paraders walked into the event area, attracting alot of attentions from the shoppers and tourists alike.. After the march is when all the real fun and excitement really begins..

Well, I truly love the event so much although I find that the cosplay competition wasn’t even great.. However, there were quite a number of good cosplayers to take a shot of with my Mikunator (Sony a300).. Due to so many pics, I’ve decided to create another post to showcase the cosplay pics I took during the event..

Well, I shall end my entry here then.. Do wait for the Cosplay post which I will post very soon.. Till then, here is a pic of the new me with Gordon as a Stormtrooper lol…

A good news for everyone, from cosplayers to photogs, there is another event for all to come and enjoy in the month of June.. The event is called the “Shine Youth Mascot Parade” (SYMP).. It is where paraders, be it cosplayers from animes/mangas or even American movies like Star Wars come will walk down a small stretch of Orchard Road on the day itself..

The event will be held this Saturday, 27th June at the Ngee Ann City Civic Plaza.. There are also other events being held during the Mascot Parade, meaning that you won’t feel bored since you can attend all of them till you tire yourself out.. Here are what you can expect on Mascot Parade 09~

Event Highlights (Taken from main site):

Yes, there are a total of 6 events, including the main event which is the “Mascot Parade March”.. There are alot of exciting things for you to do there.. At the event location, there will be 4 zones allocated for each special events.. This is to allow easy navigation for those who attend the event.. Each zone are categorised into letters, from Zone A to Zone D..

From what I gather from the site, here are what you can expect from each zones….

Events at each Zone:

Zone A:
- Atsuki KUROBARA Booth Showcase.
- BREAK the RECORD – JOIN the HALL of FAME.
- Polaroid Photo-Taking Point.
- Goodies Redemption Point.

Zone B:
- SYMP Stage Performances

Zone C:
- Robo Academy ROBOGLADIATORS Tournament
- SIM Muay Thai Club Fighting Demostration.
- BUDOKAN KARATE-DO CLUB KYOKUSHINKAIKAN.
- CIRCUS OUTREACH Fire Breathing Experience.

Zone D:
- CDSS STORM! Troopers Ensemble.
- ITE College East’s Soul Percussion.
- The Movie Mascots Flash-Mob Zone.
- SYMP PARADE MARCH. (From Wisma Atria to Zone D)

Next, the site was kind enough to provide the map area of the event itself.. Love they way the area looks symmetrical LOL.. Anyway, it looks simple enough for me.. =3

Here is the timing of the Mascot Parade itself.. The event will start at 9am and ends at 11pm.. Well, here is the list of the timing~

Timing for SYMP:

09.00am to 11.00am – Pre-Opening Setup / Rehearsal

11.00am to 12.00pm – Environmental Dance Floor – Senior Category Finals (by National Environment Agency and Nan Hua High School)

12.00pm to 12.30pm – James Cook University Song / Dance / Rap

12.30pm to 12.45pm – Variasi Performing Arts

12.45pm to 1.00pm – Songs from local music talent

1.00pm to 1.30pm – Dance Works (by Central Narcotic Bureau)

1.30pm to 2.00pm – A Cappella Society Performance

2.00pm to 2.30pm – RoboGladiators Prize Presentation

2.30pm to 3.30pm – OTAKU Unlimited Cosplay Challenge

3.30pm to 4.00pm – Celine Jessandra Hip Hop Dance + Singing

4.00pm to 5.00pm – SHINE Youth Mascot Parade March

4.30pm to 5.00pm – SHINE LAUNCH Opening Ceremony

5.00pm to 5.30pm – Kindness Movement Cheerleading

5.30pm to 6.30pm – BABESTAR Boothbabe Contest

6.30pm to 7.30pm – KUROBARA Lolita GL Fashion Parade

7.30pm to 8.30pm – KUROBARA Dollfie Showcase

8.30pm to 10.30pm – J-RockBand Concert

10.30pm to 11.00pm – SYMP Closing Ceremony/ End of Day

Seems that most of the exciting stuff will happen after 1pm.. Hopefully I will out of Tekong by then if not it will be the same as Streetfest which I didn’t attend due to NS.. -_-;;

Now for those who wants to know about the Parade March held at 4pm, it will start in front of Wisma Atria where paraders will march down slowly till they reach Zone D, the road right in front of Ngee Ann City Civic Plaza (below)..

Well, I think thats all I have for now about SYMP.. To know more about the event, go visit their website at www.mascotparade.org to see the full details.. For those who still want to participate as a parader, unfortunately, online registration was closed long ago.. =3

For those who wished to know where I get my source, click here to view it.. There is also a thread regarding the KuroBara event on SYMP… Click here to view that thread..

EDIT: Sorry, we wrote Sunday instead of Saturday. LOL