Mid-Autumn festival light-up starts on Sept 3

Celebrations for Chinatown's Mid-Autumn Festival will kick off this Saturday with the official light-up and opening ceremony.

There will be a festive bazaar and stage performances every night, as well as a mass lantern walk on Sept 11.

This year's street light-up will run till Sept 30.

The festival is organised by the Kreta Ayer-Kim Seng Citizens' Consultative Committee.

Eight second-year students from the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (Nafa) were involved in designing the lanterns for this year's light-up, which includes three large-scale lantern displays and the centrepiece, a 12m-high lantern of Chang'e, the goddess of the moon.

CAPTIVATING: The light-up includes three large-scale lantern displays and a 12m-high lantern of Chang'e. TNP PHOTO: GAVIN FOO

TNP PHOTO: GAVIN FOO     TNP PHOTO: GAVIN FOO

It took four months to produce the lights and lanterns with the help of craftsmen from Sichuan, China.The lights will be displayed along Eu Tong Sen Street, New Bridge Road and South Bridge Road for a month.

The New Paper was at the media preview of the light-up on Tuesday night.

Dr Lily Neo, Member of Parliament for Jalan Besar GRC, told TNP that having the Nafa students contribute is one of the ways to get young people involved in the festival.

She said: "We try to engage the youth because we want to pass on the tradition to the next generation."