Yayasan Sime Darby Arts Festival

I was searching the net on scholarship offers for post-graduate program, when the search results directed me to Yayasan Sime Darby site. Benda lain pulak yang caught my attention. Kakakaka
Yep, Yayasan Sime Darby Arts Festival. To be held on 13-14th September at KL Performance Art Center's building and ground. Soooo activities - dance, film, theatre, music, traditional, contemporary. Rambang jugak la mata. Yasmin Ahmad's movies included - Sepet, Gubra, Muallaf.
With so many activities, I decided to settle on one which really stood out (in my eyes) coz Sheila Majid & Zainal will be performing...*squeal!!* All admissions are free actually but for a ticketed shows, a person can only collect personally 1 ticket, on first come first serve basis. Thankfully, there was a limited online giveaway ie 2 tix per person which I signed up and dapat yoooUU *squeal!*
During lunch hour break today, I drove to KLPAC nervously takut sesat barat. Nasib baik ada Waze.

What a nice place this KLPAC. Especially the building!
'The impressive KLpac building has in fact a long history. The railway warehouse was in Sentul Park, a piece of land which came under YTL ownership with the acquisition of another company. The remodel features glass windows along the front of the building, as well as a walkway leading up to the building. In the 1800s, the building was a wood-crafting workshop and sawmill. In 1906, it became part of Sentul Works becoming the region’s most important railway depot & workshop. It then was bombed during tail end of WWII but was soon rebuilt. It was converted into a makeshift golf clubhouse in the late 1960s, but became abandoned in the early 1990s.' Wikipedia

The interior is also very nice, lapang and very colourful.

*Squeal!*

D-day, 14th September

Husband was out-stationed and thankfully his flight back was on time (flew out from Heathrow). The plan was to wait for hubby to arrive at home and drove together to KLPAC. Event started 830pm and I would prefer to be there perhaps 30 mins before the curtain call. Mr Mike of KLPAC did advise to be there early since parking spaces are limited, thankfully we could still park at the roadside even though we arrived around 8pm.

I love the Colonel's Mansion, located at the park's entrance. (Photos from : http://savoirvivrekl.blogspot.com). Night time was even more spectacular, with strategically located lights. The mansion seriously looked creepy and yet hauntingly beautiful. Wished I had more time (and night photo-shooting skill) to take photos.

Waiting excitedly for show to start

The show opened with a Hand Percussion performance. Very thrilling! My heartbeat somehow resonates with each sound of the drums.

There were 2 ladies, machoOO

Then ala2 broadway show came. They guys sang 'Cant take my eyes off from you' and the ladies sang 'Mama Mia'. Cute.. :)

It was followed by a duet. Sedap nya suara. Aiyoh...so nice lah that song. A love song. I was so frustrated trying to identify the song coz it sounded so familiar. When the male singer uttered 'Christine...' then I knew it! It was the love song from Phantom of the Opera. I looked it up after the show. Song title - All I Ask of You. Dah jadi macam ulat dalam kepala lagu ni these few days...keep playing on and on.

Raoul : Christine...That's all I ask of you...

Then the full company put on a last rendition of 'Can You Hear the People Sing' from Les Miserables, all garbed in black.
Next - a symphony orchestra by KLPAC orchestra. Lady conductor..girlll power! Unfortunately, I could not recognize 3 out of 4 songs...too bad. Got a littleee sleepy hahahaha, except the parts when an orchestra member squeaked a rubber ducky ehehehe. Thankfully, the last orchestra played was 'My Way'. Segar balik.

Next performance was by ASWARA? Well known I guess since half of the hall cheered loudly for them. Honestly, I was reminded of a contemporary piece in So You Think You Can Dance except depa2 ni tak boleh lah nak dicompare dgn SYTYCD kan...song was a bit haunting...I think Gregorian chant or something. In between dancing, they ran, skipped, convulsed, threw themselves on the floor. Me and hubby shook our heads through out this piece. Hahahaha..tak tercapai akal fikiran weiii..

A band called Monoloque performed in the next segment. Boleh tahan jugak la lagu2 dia. But the lead singer is definitely a bit eccentric. Pakai tanjak siap...Main terjah je nyayi, sometimes off tune a bit, sound system berdengung. Siap mintak maaf to the audience because 'we dragged on and on yesterday. Kitaorg dah naik sheh..' or something. The finale was really theatrical..it was loud and noisy. Drummer, guitarists went crazy with their instruments . The lead singer, he just punched the keyboards randomly, dragging his hands accross the keyboards here & there. And the funny thing was, the audience clapped, cheered, roared, woot-wooted, they loved it! It was hilarious and yet heart-warming coz to me, it really shows that this event was very supportive of artistic expression. Express it all you want babe! Wooohooo!!!

Jeng..jeng..jeng..next performers did not require introduction...the main reason why I wanted to come to this event. Zainal & Sheila laaa!

This was the seond time I saw Zainal performed. Surprisingly, half of the time, he did a stand-up comedy and he was really funny. I should have recorded it, but forgot to do so, busy laughing okay. Suara tak payah cakap laaa..maintain sedap. Everybody was shouting for him to sing Hijau. His answer ? 'Itu National Anthem, memang mesti nyayi punya.' Memang pun hahahaha.
Sheila was very elegant. Lawak pun lawak elegant. It was cute the way Zainal and Sheila kidded with each other. She got all of us standing up, clapping and singing together to her 'Sinaran'. Serak2 suara den weiii. Next year, will be her 30th year in show biz (can you believe that..) and there'll be concerts lined up. Stay tuned!
Owwhh...forgot to mention. Harith Iskandar was the emcee. No picture..Too busy paying attention to his jokes...ngehehehe..
What can I say. best huhuh! Ticket free and I got to see all these great performance. One thing I noticed, the hall was actually not fully occupied. Honestly, I think the organizer kept this event low key. Otherwise, people would be flooding the place. Free ticket some more, so there must be people (with tickets) who thinked tak rugi pun kalau tak pergi. Well, their loss!
Hah...it's a bi-annual event. See you in 2 years time.