STAGE ALL SET FOR NDP 2008

A brand new stage for the National Day Parade (NDP) 2008.

And as proudly claimed by its designers, it is in fact the "first of its kind" - with three tiers at ground level, 3m and 6m.

The design also allows for five separate "avenues" for performers to enter the stage, in addition to entrances on all three levels. According to Chairman of Infrastructure and Decoration Committee, Major (MAJ) Ronnie Yap, this will give the performing arena a "theatrical feel", not unlike that of a professional performing theatre.

As part of the organising committee's efforts to make this year's NDP more inclusive and engaging than ever before, it was decided that the stage should be moved forward - as close to the audience stands as possible.

Keeping in line also with a more audience-centred stage design concept, the light and sound towers that used to surround the stage have been drastically altered. Whereas last year's NDP featured nine 24-metre light towers in the middle of two 24-metre sound towers, this year will see the stage flanked by nine 32-metre light towers in between two 12-metre sound towers. This will give spectators sitting at both ends of the gallery a decent view.

This 500-tonne mammoth of a stage was designed by architects from Zarch Collaboratives, who pointed towards the NDP 2008 theme - "Celebrating the Singapore Spirit" - as the inspiration for their design, which attempted to fuse both the spirit of adventure and creativity with one of organic fluidity.

Hanging from the light towers behind the stage is an LED mesh, consisting of thousands of tiny LED lights which will form a gigantic video screen.

Constructing a three-tier stage has brought several considerable challenges. Speaking to cyberpioneer, Mr Soh Tian Boon, an engineer from the Defence Science & Technology Agency who, together with architects from Zarch Collaboratives and MAJ Ronnie Yap, was one of the key minds behind the stage, shared that building light towers of such scale proved to be a difficult task.

"We had originally intended the towers to go up to 36 metres, but we had to be mindful of potential damage to the artificial turf, as well as the limits on the type of cranes that could be loaded onto the platform," said MAJ Yap.

With all the preparatory work and designs in place, the NDP Infrastructure and Decoration Committee still faced one major question, namely, construction and what to do during that period.

Fortunately, MAJ Lee Meng Seng, Chairman of Logistics and Finance, stepped up to the plate. With the trademark military precision that has marked the rest of the NDP planning, MAJ Lee came up with the idea of building a mock-up stage using storage containers.

Thanks to the donation and contribution of Neptune Orient Lines and Indeco Engineers of 141 containers and the construction works respectively, the team was able to complete the construction of a mock-up stage in a remarkable seven weeks.

Yet while they may have won numerous battles along the way, the organisers have not yet won the "war" until NDP proper.

Speaking to the media, Chairman of the Executive Committee, Colonel (COL) Tung Yui Fai, voiced his confidence that the parade's participants - all 7,300 of them, consisting of the marching contingents, pre-parade performers and actual show performers - would be more than ready when the time comes.

"It will be a good show," he said.