Event Feature: March Para Para Bash (09/03/2002)

The March Para Para Bash was initiated by me (PaRaLuKe) and with the help of many others like KC, Shingo, Stephen(Shingo's Bro), Darren and Angela we managed to conduct the event successfully. As this is the first ever pure Para Para event in Singapore, it can be quite disorganised and sure it was anyway, but I feel generally it's a good effort at bringing many Paralists together and dance as one.

The planning actually started late February and soon I got down to business by planning the foodstuff and beverages as well as the tracks and rough schedule of how things are supposed to be done (in the end it never was committed fully :P)...it was quite a tiring effort as much stuff are needed to be done and this being a first ever Para Para event, worries are often haunting me but I feel that's really a good sign. :)

With grateful help from Shingo and Stephen, we took their car down to Marina Promenade Park and started to unload the foodstuff and misc items by 5:15pm at the location we selected, the area under Nicoll Highway. After preparing for a little while (and being bombarded by many many calls from the paralists who were waiting at Marina Square GameStation as well as some latecomers) I left the place at around 5:30pm and proceeded to the meeting place, Marina Square Gamestation.

Using 5 minutes as travelling time, I arrived at the place only to get an overwhelming response of so many people waiting for me outside the place (about 20-30 people I guess) and to me I felt that was really a good sign. Just as everyone knew it was sort of a Birthday Bash as well as a Para Para Bash, GQ (a guy) got up to me and gave a 'a nice birthday present' on my arm (I will not forget it guy) and I proceeded inwards to check if there were others. I saw about 10 others playing the arcades and watching others playing and I gave them rough instructions on where to go and soon I went out of the arcade only to find that there are some others who have not arrived at the scene! Without wasting much time I had to go back first with a few following along.

Coming back to the park, I saw a few familiar faces (hi Mohan, Candy, Eugene) and continued to help out the remaining stuff yet to be handled. Soon I have more people coming in but soon I discovered that the most important equipment of the event (which is my audio equipment) have not arrived! After letting the guys settle for a while I had to go back to Gamestation to get the audio so we can kickstart the event...

Getting back to Marina Square Gamestation, most of the guys have already arrived and after waiting for a short while the necessary people have come together and we proceeded to the park.

By the time the audio started it was already over 6pm and I started the warmup by playing popular songs from the Arcade machines and a few started to dance along while it's my time to start overseeing and worrying the entire event and area...

:: Brainstorming the event...hehehhe

Yeah...soon I saw Angela (EP Angela) and her mom and they gave me a birthday present and I really thank them for coming and really, the present was quite unnecessary :)...

:: Still brainstorming...got a feeling I'm getting the order of events in slight disarray :P

Just a few minutes after that I had Weilis and her mom coming along (in a 'corner' hehehe) and they came all the way down just to give me a present which I am very appreciative of (hey it's cute) and I would like to say thanks for coming though both of you did not stay to watch the proceedings...and thanks auntie for supporting my website! :P

Soon as the night sets in and the arcade songs coming to an end, I stood on top of the 'rocks' (hahaha it's actually some big bricks meant for supporting huge tents I think) and gave a speech on why I organised such an event and also to formally kickstart the event!

Before I go on to talk about the teaching session, I shall talk about the 'rocks'. Initially there were only a few of them and I wanted to use them for the audio system so it can be heard by many of us and also for the drink dispensers and food...soon a truck came back and I was very worried they are taking away the 'rocks' but it turned out that they are merely removing a few and putting some back (and in the process re-positioning the rocks so I can actually teach on the rocks)!

:: Back to main event

After the speech I got on to teaching the paralists SuperDance which is sang by Veronica under the Para Para Panic! series created by Victor Entertainment. As this dance is relatively easy and many have already seen or been indirectly taught by me, the general paralists got on to the dance pretty quickly and after a tutorial runthrough by me as well as some practices I noticed weary movements of some and I quickly realised that some might be hungry and thus after the session I declared the food to be 'legally cleared'! After opening the protective layers (esp. the curry which we had 4 layers of protection) of the food we have many coming in to savour the food we have prepared for them.

As everyone is eating I started 'making my rounds' to see how everyone is adapting to the mood and stuff and generally I think the ambience was okay and soon as some have finished their food the music of Cyber Dance was heard and some rose to the occasion and started doing their leaping and butt-moving movements and I took the chance to start filming the occasion down with the camcorder I borrowed from Angela.

:: Hmmm did I miss out something?

By the time the dances were down to 777, I gathered all the possible paralists around and filmed the complete dance as a formal representation of the paralists community in Singapore during the March Para Para Bash and after the dance we had ISP (Ike Space Paradise) to present a performance for the paralists community and I took the opportunity to film it down as well.

Right after this was the songs from PPP 1, 2, 3 and J-Euro and almost everyone continued to dance with fervour as familiar songs like Everybody Dance, Dance In The Fire, Hot Vampire and Fever The Night were played along in the cosy night. One of the songs featured was Stay The Night by Dave Rodgers from PPP 1 and some of the guys coxed me to dance and of course I have to comply to the crowd isn't it? :) i tried my best to dance without errors and yet maintain the necessary style needed in the dance...though I would say I did not make any big mistakes but as for the style, that's something not for me to judge :)

As the series of songs ended, EP did their performance and though they had little time to practice I felt they did their very best to display a trait which I think the paralists community would need - unity in diversity. Each of the members had their own style but to come together and perform in unison was never an easy thing and I would like to thank them for preparing so much for this event.

The day ended with some songs from the new batch of videos we got as well as some old songs like Macho Duck and Black Magic - the new ones being Gotcha! and Watch Me Dancing. As the songs come to an end, so did the event. The event ended around 10pm and though many had already left I have to thank everyone for contributing to this event one way or another, may you be the ones directly helping out or simply just dancing to the music, I hereby thank all of you for your participation and hopefully this event will spearhead more future event simply for Para Para and for people to realise what's Para Para.

Till then, enjoy Para Para! Cantare Ballare! ;)