This year’s National Day Parade organisers have created a replica of the Marina Bay floating platform for Bedok, so that participants can familiarise themselves with the stage they will be performing on on Aug 9.

So while 75 men work feverishly to get the bay-side stage ready for the first combined rehearsals next month, some 7,000 participants can still be put through their paces on a replica sitting on the field of Bedok Camp II in Upper East Coast Road.

Rehearsals, which started earlier this month, fall on weeknights and weekends. The replica stage is made of 141 storage containers, plywood, hardwood and steel.

Said chairman of the logistics and materials committee, Major Lee Meng Seng: “We wanted to provide a realistic training platform for the performers so they will be familiar with the choreography and positions when they move to the real stage in Marina Bay.”

The performers will rehearse on the actual bay-side stage only when it is completed in two weeks’ time.

Organisers have promised to bring the action from this year’s show closer to the audience. It will feature a three-tiered stage and an expanded promenade in front of the 27,000-seat gallery.

Unlike last year, the height of the towering structures at the front of the stage will be halved to about 12m high. Major Ronnie Yap, chairman of the infrastructure and decoration committee, said this is to give spectators at the corner of the stands an “unobstructed and clear view” of the action.

This year’s stage designer, Mr Randy Chan, said: “A more formal and grander stage will allow more flexibility and options to better choreograph the show.”

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Platform Gallery

Click on the thumbnail images for a visual preview on what the floating platform will look like!