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Citrawarna - Colours Of Malaysia 2008 was held yesterday 24th May in Dataran Putrajaya. Citrawarna is an annual event showcasing Malaysian arts, traditions and culture via performances, dances and music. The event has always been shown on live telecast but I have never imagined myself catching it live in Putrajaya. Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib and Tourism Minister Datuk Azalina Othman were among the VVIPs present. Mahathir Lokman and Cheryl Samad were the MC for the evening and they were working together great as a team. Armed with a camera and tripod, I hoped to capture some photos of the most colourful event in Malaysia.

Although the event officially started at 8.30pm, there were pre-shows to keep visitors occupied until then. Many food stalls were setup selling beef noodle, burger, kebab, stick food, fried noodle etc. Even Pizza Hut was there! Mood was carnival like.

I arrived around 7pm and Uncle Hussein was already there entertaining visitors with their local hit songs.

Digi sponsored trishaws were part of the parade. I have never seen such colourful trishaws before! They are really eye-catching.

This is where the lucky people sit, having an unblocked view of the stage. Only those who bought a package for Colours Of Malaysia are eligible to enjoy this.

Clowns’ presence added even more to the carnival mood of Citrawarna.

So, I went around to look for beautiful cultural dancers to snap some photos. They are extremely friendly, always with a smile on their faces and will automatically pose for you. You don’t even have to ask! This is good for me because I was shy to ask lol.

I took a lot of photos of this girl because she’s the prettiest of all and her smile is just fascinating! Then the event started with a bang. A short fireworks performance was displayed. Then, performers from different cultural backgrounds performed martial arts and dances along the street. Sadly, my photos were all blurry because of the far distance between me and the stage. So, I cannot show anything about the performance It was great and I enjoyed it a lot especially the performances from the Indian and Punjabi communities.

Another round of fireworks performance for the closure of the event. This time it was a long one, which I think was about two to three minutes.

The fireworks was great. It really shows that the Government is serious about promoting Citrawarna. I am guessing the fireworks should cost at least tens of thousands.

This is the first time I took photos of fireworks and I am so glad they turned up so well. Please click on the photos to view the larger size.

After the fireworks ended, it was party time! The streets are open to visitors and are invited to dance along with the dancers. It was also a great opportunity to take some photos with them

The female dancer must have felt like a celebrity that night. So many people requested to have a photo with her lol. You can see why, she is so gorgeous.

Nice pose by the Citrawarna performers!

Some participants from Akademi Fantasia were invited to perform songs and it immediately got the dancers into party mood.

Yesterday was probably one of the most interesting nights I have had recently. Even as a Malaysian I am amazed by our local culture and I’d certainly return next year. If you haven’t been to a live Citrawarna before, I strongly suggest you to come and witness it for yourself. Indeed, Malaysia Truly Asia! By the way, it took me a long time to prepare this post, please leave a comment if you can.. I am running low on comments recently lolz.

Technorati Tags: event, Tourism, Malaysia, Colours Of Malaysia, fireworks, Citrawarna

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