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| (i'm sure this is unnecessary by now, but... click here to go to the official site!) |
Even though it's pretty late over here, Pris and I were so excited after our day at Pink Dot 2011 we had to make the post the same night. (We've already covered the basics of what Pink Dot is all about in our pre-post here, so check that post for a bit of background first if you don't already know!) We had a bit of early preparation to pump ourselves up with a trip to the neoprint machines in Bugis for a Pink Dot photoshoot and afterward headed straight to Hong Lim Park, despite the fact that nothing began at all until 4:30 and we were two and a half hours early.
To our surprise, the event preparation was well under way and there were already a few die hard souls gathering and grabbing some choice spots as well as a ton of volunteers hard at work setting things up. We got ourselves a spot too and watched as the first few dozen people or so quickly turned into several hundred, even though it was still well before starting time.
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| (camwhoring for a good cause!) |
As expected, the Speaker's Corner turned into a sea of pink before we knew it, with great weather and everyone in high spirits making our time even better. We wandered around a while to see everything going on, but this turned out to be unnecessary for two reasons: 1) By the time things really started it was so packed walking was almost impossible, and 2) the volunteers were ridiculously on top of things, with dozens of trays being passed around with free drinks, cupcakes, informational brochures, pins and other fun souvenirs.
(this won the award for sweetest drink. seriously, go here if you can, these people are awesome! www.thegardenslug.com)
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| (go here too, these mini cupcakes were delicious! @thewokandbarrel) |
All the great free treats were definitely the icing on the cupcake, totally unexpected but wonderfully welcome, but the real stars were the staff who kept everyone laughing and happy, so props to all the Pink Dot 2011 crew, you all definitely brightened our day!
Several staff were patrolling the area with sticky hearts they were asking people to write messages on. Both Pris and I wrote our messages and got to stick them on the walking message board (see above), but when we saw where they all ended up it was even more fun and touching.
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| (Pink Dot message board! Instant written pick-me-up) |
Soon after that the promised concert got underway, with performances by the Dim Sum Dollies, Voguelicious and Rima S and plenty more.
(told you they were there. unfortunately, we didn't get to hear the MRT song today)
(they had some serious dance moves. also, look at those heels!)
The concert was great, but the best part of the event came when all over 10,000 of the participants tried to form a huge human pink dot. Unfortunately only citizens and PRs could form the dot, as per the rules of the Speaker's Corner, but even they alone managed to take up the entire space. I'm going to link here to pictures from all the Pink Dot events just for comparison to how insane this was:
We're not sure if they actually expected this high of a turnout, but if they didn't no one could tell. Despite the huge crowd, there was excess of everything; drinks, snacks, brochures, balloons, pom poms and pretty much anything else you could expect. We got a few of our own pics of the dot forming (well, I did, Pris was already in it. Try and spot her in the photos!), but definitely check out the links, the aerial view is fantastic.
Once everyone was gathered there was a countdown and all at once hundreds of balloons were released by the crowd.
I gotta admit, that was a pretty tear jerking moment, with everyone yelling in support and cheering and the general excitement in the air. Not something you'd expect in a country where it is still officially illegal for two men to be together (of course, there are no provisions on women in the law, I suppose the government doesn't think that exists?)
We even got a quick snapshot of ourselves before heading off.
One last note before signing off here: if you haven't already watched the Pink Dot 2011 video, you need to watch it now. I don't think anyone with half a heart could finish through that without shedding a tear or two-
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