More than 80 performance groups are set to join the 2024 Macao International Parade, bringing the total number of participants to almost 1,800, the Cultural Affairs Bureau announced yesterday.
The number is about the same as was seen in 2019 – the last year before the Covid-19 pandemic put the event on hiatus.
Most of the groups are local or hail from the Chinese mainland. The rest come from countries including Portugal, Norway, the UK, Togo, Mozambique and Brazil. Together, they’ll bring “a wonderful feast of cultural exchange to the public,” said the bureau, which is also known by its Portuguese initials IC.
New categories in this year’s parade include large-scale artistic installations – the likes of giant puppets – and multidisciplinary collaborations.
[See more: The Macao International Parade is recruiting performers and participants]
Between 17 and 22 March, in the lead-up to the main event, residents can expect to see performing groups pop up in neighbourhoods and at the integrated resorts. A street carnival will also take place on 23 March, at Largo de S. Domingos and Praça de Jorge Álvares.
The parade itself will take place on 24 March, starting at the Ruins of St Paul’s and finishing at Praça do Lago Sai Van. This year’s theme is “Love, Peace and Cultural Integration.”
The government has budgeted just seven million patacas for this year’s parade – 30 percent of what its last iteration cost in 2019, the Macau Post Daily reports. The shortfall is presumably being made up by Macao’s six gaming concessionaires, who are supporting this year’s event.
