A day of youth, for the youth, by the youth…
By Xinlei Lee, photos by Tee YingZi
Over 12,000 young souls rallied around for the opening ceremony of SHINE Youth Festival 2012, held at Ngee Ann City Civic Plaza. This event marked the start of a month-long extravaganza of youth-centric activities aimed at spreading more joy in society.
Walk for a Cause and Cosmo Youth Parade
Iron Man? Check. Chun Li? Present. If you’re wondering whether the parade managed to rope in Predator as well; as a matter of fact, it did. For a good hour and a half, hundreds of youths and those young at heart walked across Orchard Road, cosplaying as popular comic, video game, manga and movie characters to support causes close to their hearts. Grabbing everyone’s attention, three hundred participants joined together to form an 800m-long cloth dragon that stretched from Ngee Ann City to 313@Somerset! 
Dell-Intel Youth Concert
After a pledge to SHINE, local youth performers Clarence Liew and Jack and Rai took to the microphones. Following this, Australian twins ‘Jayesslee’ captivated the audience with electrifying performances of ‘We Are Young’ by Fun , ‘Payphone’ by Maroon 5 (their YouTube cover has almost 7 million views) and ‘Nobody’ by Wonder Girls, a Korean song that got the crowd in a frenzy.
Pledge to SHINE
Look out for more fun SHINE events throughout the month, and don’t forget to make a pledge. All you have to do is complete the sentence, “Whatever it takes, I will…”
For more information about what SHINE 2012 hopes to do and all the activities they have planned out for the month, visit www.shine.nyc.sg and look up their Calendar of Events !
