[Review] South-East Asia's Largest Art Festival at Genting Highlands

Exclusively invited by Resorts World Genting, I travelled for approximately 10 hours on a travel coach before I finally made it to Genting Highlands over the weekend; in time to witness the launch of the Largest Balloon Art Festival in SouthEast Asia.

At the Times Square Stage in First World Plaza, Dato' Anthony Yeo, Senior president of Public Relations & communications(2nd from right) with representatives from the event's official sponsors were present to grace the ceremony. The audience rejoiced as the special guests on stage broke the 'alien egg' on stage and colourful balloons burst into the air!

The theme for this balloon art festival is 'Alien World'.

Balloon sculptures are displayed all around Genting's Indoor & Outdoor theme park. So if you are going to Genting, do slow down your pace and take a few minutes to admire & appreciate the hardwork of these amazing festival's creative sculptors who flew in from Italy, Japan & Taiwan to assemble them for your pleasure.

A picture with one of the alien balloons.

Standing on stage are models donning the Balloon Costume which are created by the festival's creative sculptors from Italy (Alberto Falcone, Federico Onida), Japan (Azusa Ieizumi & Akane Shibata, Charry) and Taiwan (Stone Chang), who are internationally recognized and award-winning balloon sculpture artists.

I was really impressed by 2 of these balloons-made costumes(top picture):

1st from the left, the white costume designed by Stone Chang(Taiwan).

1st from the right, the black costume designed by Charry (Japan).

But the person who impressed me the most was Tom Bibo, an international balloon sculptor from Belgium. He gave himself an on-stage nickname, "Handsome Tom". I was pleasantly entertained, and I believe all children and adults who were present to watch were equally impressed.

He'll be giving 3 different balloon demonstrations daily from 11th to 26th June 2011 at 2pm, 7.30pm & 10pm.

Background of Tom Bibo:

• Handsome Tom has bagged titles in Belgium Balloon Art Champion 1999
• winner of Twist & Shout Large Sculptures Competition 2000
• Balloon Entertainer Competition at Millennium Jam 2001,2001 & 2005,
• The Best Talent in Belgium Improve League 2003
• TV debut in "The Magic 4".
• Starred in his own TV show "BOOH" in 2005.

Balloon workshop by this awesome man commences at 2.30pm and 8.00pm after his stage demonstration. Overheard from an interview with him later over dinner, he plans to teach the children how to fold the balloons into a dog, a flower, a sword and sometimes even special requests from children too! (Can teach me how to make a Pikachu?)

However, be fast as registration is based on a first come basis during the event period for the first 15 kids, terms and conditions apply of course.

How I wished I was given the opportunity to attend one of his workshop. At least I'll get to experience how interesting the workshop is and give you an insight. The hands on will be really exciting to write. Maybe next time.

Handsome Tom is warming up his audience by 'teaching' them the way to applaud properly(it's really just the usual way). Pretty amazing that within seconds he managed to get the entire floor of audience to do that with him- adults & children alike. My hands were in the air too but I was taking photographs. :p

Oh and by the way, he is extremely generous about giving away his balloons. So if you are watching his show, go UPFRONT for his Giant Balloon dog(But like he mentioned, you need to own a really big car to bring this enormous dog home. Look at the photos below.)

Can you see the giant dog?

Kids are so rich nowadays isn't it? They are snatching to bring the dog home while the humble adults stay glued to their seats. Don't get it? It's the 'big car' joke I was mentioning about earlier.

I was privileged to have the opportunity to admire the models up close & personal. Standing with me is Stone Chang(Taiwan) with his work, one of my favourites!

The little balloons are 'buttons' of this costume.

Tom Bibo's interview: He IS handsome & jovial by nature.

GROUP PHOTO which I waited more than an hour for:

I caught an interesting sight as I was on my way to the cafe lounge for dinner: A group of clowns chilling out at this cafe within First World Hotel. Now that's something you don't see everyday.

The most worthwhile thing for making this trip was that I got to know Christine, SY & Darren a little better. I made new friends. :)

It was only for a short 2 hours spent at the outdoor theme park & some rides we wanted to take were either too far a distance or closed for maintainence. On top of that, you know about weekend queues as much as I do, so it was quite sad that we only managed to get on 4 rides.

I heard that there's actually a Night Park/ Fiesta from 7 to 10 pm with carnivals and parades at the Genting Outdoor Theme Park. Another highlight is that First World plaza shopping outlets are extending their operation hours till 1am daily till 25 Jun 2011 which we didn't get to go too. If you had, maybe you can share your experience as I am really interested.

Meng Hong & Siew Juan, the two angels trying their best to show us around and make us feel at home; both of you are very genuine and sincere.

Thank you so much!

The lunch before departing Genting for Singapore at Maxims Genting---DELICIOUS!

Look at what we found on the table:

The Balloon Art Festival at Resorts World Genting is scheduled from 11 to 26 Jun 2011.

Visit www.rwgenting.com and Facebook page.

Now for another hateful 10hours of bus ride back.

Argh.

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This post is powered by ASUS N-series laptop.

Really suitable for 4-eyes like me because of its REALLY BIG SCREEN & FONTS which I just keep zooming in like there's no tomorrow! Notice the difference between the size of my netbook & ASUS N53:

Big keys too! *HURRAY*