Macao will be celebrating its designation as one of the “Culture Cities of East Asia 2025” with a slew of events this year, based on the theme of “East-West Encounter, Asia in Harmony.”
The programme will consist of an opening ceremony, along with other events and projects that cover tourism, sports and culture. These include the 2nd Macao International Children’s Arts Festival; the 37th Macao International Music Festival; Art Macao: Macao International Art Biennale; and the 33rd Macao International Fireworks Display Contest.
At a press conference held yesterday, officials from the Cultural Affairs Bureau said the opening ceremony would take place alongside the Macao International Parade, which is scheduled on 23 March.
Around 1,800 performers from 23 regional and overseas groups, as well as 60 local groups, will participate in the parade, which will kick off from the Ruins of St Paul’s at 3 pm.
Artistic troupes from 15 locations outside of Macao, including Portugal, India, Italy, Germany, mainland China and Hong Kong, will venture into Senado Square and Avenida Panorâmica do Lago Nam Van, where a carnival with games and performances will take place.
During the final part of the parade, a competition involving twenty local groups will be held, with the final performance due to take place at Sai Van Lake Square at 6:30 pm.
[See more: The 2025 Macao International Parade will take place next month]
“This year is the second time for the event to be held in March,” the head of the Cultural Affairs Bureau, Leong Wai Man, told local media yesterday. “We estimate the number of online and offline attendees should be about the same as last year, which will be about 150,000.”
Leong noted that the budget for the event was around 7 million patacas (US$874,000), a cost that would be shared among the six casino operators.
A live broadcast of the parade and opening ceremony will be available on the day via TDM’s Entertainment and Ou Mun channels.
The three other cities that bagged the Culture Cities of East Asia 2025 title are Huzhou, China; Kamakura, Japan; and Anseong, South Korea. Collaboration between them will be a feature of the programme and the parade will see performance groups from these three places.
In addition, the Macao government will be organising exchange activities that incorporate cultural features from China, Japan and Korea, including collaborative artworks and musical compositions between artists of these three countries.
Macao earned its designation as one of the Culture Cities of East Asia for 2025 last year, becoming the first non-mainland Chinese city to win the honour. The initiative, which was established in 2014 and based in Seoul, is a trilateral effort between China, Japan and South Korea.
