Fantastic China @ Pesta Pulau Pinang

17 Dec, 2006 Stumble it!

Posted by: vkeong In: Entertainment| Travel () (15 views)

Pesta Pulau Pinang (Penang Festival) is an annual event in Penang that holds every December throughout the month. I have only been there once when I was kid. I barely recall the experience except remembering that there were a lot of colourful lights. The 40th Penang Festival, themed “Colourful Penang” would be the last to be held at Tapak Pesta in the island. The site will serve as a monorail station in the future. One of the main attraction in this year’s Pesta is Fantastic China : Extreme Variety.

Seats are classified into normal and VIP, priced at RM12 and RM22 respectively. Luckily for Hotlink subscribers they can get discounts, or free ticket for purchasing reload cards. Purchasing a RM60 reload card will get you a free normal seat while a RM100 reload card gets you a VIP seat plus an additional 25% off the next ticket. An extra reload card is always handy and useful so I bought the RM100 card.

The show started with a nice intro of Fantastic China, with really loud music. REALLY loud. And all of a sudden a small girl appeared in the centre stage and started playing a big viola. She is one of the four child genius who can sing and play musical instruments. It is amazing to know that their average age is only 10!

Next, came another three young girls. They sang a couple of Christmas songs. I have to admit this is the most boring part throughout the show.

I can’t help but notice how cute this girl is. When she sings she shakes her head lol.

After the girls finished singing. Four men with Mexican hats started to perform Floating Hats. No matter how they toss and move around, none of the hats touches the floor. This is where the show finally starts to excite the crowd.

Next are 2 girls who performed roller-skating on a small round platform. They performed every unbelieveable moves you can imagine with ease and grace. Also worth mentioning is that they are also 10 years old only. Their last movement was perhaps the climax of the whole show. Tying a small rope around their necks and spinning their bodies mid-air. What a jaw dropping performance.

Bian Lian - Changing Faces is also one of the shows. It featured a well-known master who has performed in front of many national leaders and a puppet. The puppet is controlled by a man with 2 sticks. Amazingly it can also change face from the man’s control. It can even emit smoke!(but from what I saw in the posters, it was supposed to breathe fire? lol) Lets see how the master changes a mask in the following sequence of photos.

Then a man performed some acrobatic moves on a highly stacked chairs. The last show was 2 men also performing acrobatic moves but involved more strength. They are known as the Powerful Twin (lol).

Overall Fantastic China was a great experience and I urge those who haven’t visited Pesta Pulau Pinang to seize this opportunity. Although you still can visit it next year in Seberang Perai, it wouldn’t be the same anymore. For those who are interested, visit this article for more information