Singapore Day goes to Melbourne joining Dick Lee, Asian Idol Hady Mirza and hawkers from Food Republic

Monday, August 25, 2008

Phua Chu Kang says he has never been to Australia, but all that is about to change. Singapore Day 2008 will be held at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne, Australia, a 12,000-capacity arena which recently hosted opera singer Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and music legend Santana.

Come Oct 4, the popular TV character will be part of a 200-strong Singaporean entourage that will be flying to Melbourne to entertain and feed some 6,000 Singaporeans living, working and studying there.

Joining him will be singer-composer Dick Lee, Asian Idol Hady Mirza and hawkers from Food Republic, who will be whipping up Singaporean favourites like chicken rice, char kway teow and ice kachang for the hungry masses.

The Singlish-spewing contractor with the huge mole and curly hairdo appeared in character at the press conference on Tuesday for the launch of Singapore Day 2008, an annual event which aims to connect Singaporeans overseas to home.

This year's gathering will be held at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl, a 12,000-capacity arena which recently hosted opera singer Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and music legend Santana.

The event has taken about a year to organise and costs $3 million.

This is the second time the Overseas Singaporean Unit (OSU) is organising Singapore Day. The inaugural event was held at New York City's Central Park last April and attracted 6,000 Singaporeans, most of whom were living in the United States.

Australia was chosen because it has one of the four largest Singaporean populations overseas, together with the US, China and the United Kingdom.

And Melbourne got the nod over the other major Australian city Sydney because it has a slightly larger Singaporean population - and response from the Singaporeans there was also more enthusiastic, said OSU director Roy Quek.

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