A Nation on Stage: Designing Singapore's National Day Parade
Set and prop design for Singapore's National Day Parade 2019 — the Bicentennial edition at The Padang — credited to Patrick Larsen on Studio Bound's portfolio.
Singapore's National Day Parade 2019 at The Padang — the Bicentennial edition. Studio Bound's portfolio credits Patrick Larsen with set and prop design.
For Singapore's National Day Parade 2019 — the Bicentennial edition, marking 200 years since 1819 — I did the set and prop design. Staged at The Padang on 9 August.
Marina Bay backdrop — the Singapore Flyer and Marina Bay Sands frame the field as performers, lit floats and lantern props fill The Padang in formation. Set and prop design by Patrick Larsen, Studio Bound.
A country watching
NDP is a high-stakes brief. Mass choreography, ceremony, real feeling, in front of a stadium crowd and a whole country on broadcast. Everything is watched, everything is remembered, and there's no second take. The design has to scale to a national venue and still read for one person at home.
"Majulah Singapura" projected across the Asian Civilisations Museum at dusk, with lantern props and ensemble formations filling the field. Set and prop design by Patrick Larsen, Studio Bound.
200 years in props
For a bicentennial, the design has to do more than look right — it has to tell a story. My work covered floats, large culture-based props and lighted mobile stages: pieces that move, carry performers and represent chapters of Singapore's history, engineered to roll on and off on cue. Dick Lee creative-directed and wrote the theme song. Lighting by Lighting Insomnia.
The same façade after dark — projection-lit drummers and a central plinth stage hold the field below "Majulah Singapura." Set and prop design by Patrick Larsen, Studio Bound.Three moments from the show: the stadium drummer ring at full intensity, fireworks and lasers over the main stage, and the cultural procession of floats and ensembles. Set and prop design by Patrick Larsen, Studio Bound.
No margin
NDP is the kind of job that tests your nerve. One live night, a nation's milestone, a stadium's worth of moving parts that all have to work first time. It sits with Sing50 and the ceremony work as part of what I do — the loudest, least forgiving live rooms.
