After their eventual closure, there was no attempt made by any businessman or anyone for that matter to rebuild and resurrect any of the previous Amusement parks. Not until the latest movie
"The Great Great Great World ", a locally produced movie by MediaCorp set for public screening on 27 January in our cinemas...did someone come up with the brave idea of remaking part of that iconic Park.
That someone is a local maverick for fairs and carnivals....Unk Ringo. He has been in this business for 3 decades.
For the filming of the movie they had to recreate "Great World" with all infrastructure as we knew from the past. Unk Ringo had a big hand in this as he had all those big items for thrills and rides plus all kinds of "tikam" and Game stalls paraphernalia.
After the movie was completed, he was encouraged to recreate on a smaller scale the "fun" part of Great World in the heartlands.
He chose to set it up at Sengkang as there was a ready-made hardcourt and with good location to attract many visitors.
[DPM Teo Chee Hean being greeted by the cast of the movie ]
Great World Amusement Park at Sengkang was opened at 7.30 pm sharp on Saturday 22 January 2011. The Guest of Honour was DPM Teo Chee Hean accompanied by the other MPs of the GRC.
I was there with my grandkids and wifey to lend moral, heritage and blogger support for this laudable effort. Some of the members of my Performing group...the Minstrels were present too.
No we were not there to entertain anyone...just being there to see if the past can be reconnected in some ways.
[He and his party was were welcomed by Lion Dancers ]
[The official Ribbon -cutting ceremony ]
[ Balloons were released into the night sky ]
[ The movie cast took turns to speak to the crowd ]
[ Some of those in the movie..elaborating ]
[ The VIPs at the 'tikam' stall - Horse Racing ]
[ They tried their luck..win or not I don't know ]
[ Joget Tanjong...DPM can certainly "joget"! ]
2 comments:
Missed the opening unk. Spoke to Ringo about the project and glad he managed it again. That man is an expert with amusement parks.
I think there's a band playing there weekends. Managed by Audie Ng.
All the best to the success of the temporary Great World. Hope it teaches our young ones about Singapore's interesting and entertaining past.
Poor Unk Ringo...he had many people who verbally agreed to be involved in different ways in the project but who later left him hanging alone and dry. Pasar-malam and hawker food stalls did not materialise...so he had to make do with other simpler alternatives.
However, there is still a semblance of the old nostalgia as the other attractions are similar to the past. That opening night, the songs and music reminded me very much of the old Great World...sung in the old ways too, especially songs like "Cha-cham-bo", Yeh Lai Siang and other dialect songs.
Yes, Ringo told me about a band being engaged.
Hopefully, old timers can relive a little of their past and the younger ones will see what they had missed!
Post a Comment