This year, FASS Club bagged the Silver Award at the annual NUS Students’ Union (NUSSU) Rag & Flag 2015.
Unlike in previous years, Rag Day 2015 was held on a grand scale at The Float @ Marina Bay in conjunction with the nation’s Jubilee celebrations as well as NUS 110th anniversary. The theme was “Where I Belong – To be with the People”, deviating from the regular narrative themes that bound past Rag Day competitions. This allowed more room for interpretation, expression and creativity.
FASS Club’s storyline for its float display and performance features various architectural landmarks that resonate with the modern Singaporean.
A lot of thought and time were put into the arrangements of the floats and dance. As such, preparations were well underway as early as September last year – starting out with a recruitment drive for participants.
Nicholas Tan Jing Wen, chairperson of the Freshmen Orientation Programme says, “Preparations for this year required far more specialist knowledge, as this was the first year in a long time that the Rag Committee has had to put up a night performance. This meant that previously neglected components of performance such as lighting, sound quality and videography had to be taken into account.”
“Additionally, the external venue meant we had to increase the durability of our floats. Concerns such as transportation of the items, modular design and even luminosity of the paint had to be taken into account,” he added.
The planning and construction of the float only began last December and May this year respectively. In May, the number of helpers doubled as the freshmen were able to help.
As much as possible the Club tried to incorporate the use of recycled materials, gathered from collection drives, at every stage of the construction process. The structure of the float comprised recycled metal L-bars and cardboards while numerous Yakult bottles and newspapers formed the intricate patterns that injected more life to the floats.
In total, a 13-member Rag Committee, 18 float engineers and 38 dancers were involved in the entire process. The result was a dazzling float display and a spectacular dance performance that wowed the spectators that night.
Picture Credits: NUS Arts Rag and Flag