#Urbanscapes Closing Day

I returned to Urbanscapes House for the final day. They had a long list of events on the ready. Being at an open site and right smack in the middle of the city, there was no issues about access. In fact, I went there twice on the day, first alone in the afternoon to catch some music and later with Anita after dinner managing to catch the last leg of the "Open Mic Stand", a stand-up show hosted by a friend.

It was threatening to rain at late afternoon, hence the start of the festivities was delayed. The first stand-up session was done indoors instead rather than at the intended "nasi lemak" shaped stage - complete with free nasi lemak. The band started playing half an hour late but soon the schedule caught up. The weather also cleared, but the sun was shaded - which was just as well so that it was not too hot.

FluffyThe day's programThe crowd filling up the balcony at Urbanscapes House while the rigging for the concert stage was erectedPrakash was the MC for the "One Mic Stand" showsI took shelter at Central Market while things were starting, taking some tea.

There were all together 3 stand-up chows for the day - I caught the first and the last - featuring different comedians. And they were bold enough to have stand-up in Malays. The first few did not catch on, but the one - the headliner - in the final show was excellent. In fact, the last session was a riot - in the open at night - it was simply excellent. And yes, they tried giving away all the nasi lemak but there were no takers. Me and Anita was already done with our dinner.

The crowd started mingling while the stage was setThe balloons protecting us from the elementsHive of activitiesI also enjoyed the Tugu Drum Circle - where they got the public to participate - but I didn't join because of my tendinitis. More about the drums later. Security was pretty OK, and since Medan Pasar was popular with the foreign workers during weekend, the main job of the security was to make sure that there were no unwanted incident rather than true security. On the while, the whole place was safe, and I hope in the years to come, similar event was done here.

Street Arts

As part of the UNESCO Day, a street art competition was held. And we were talking about using chalks to draw on road kind of art! Proper street art. But a shame that it wouldn't be permanent.

I was with one of the judges for the competition as I know him from KLickr, and the both of us agreed that the efforts from the schoolchildren was definitely more appreciated than the works of the professional artistes who were also taking part.

Not sure who the winner was, but I could certainly appreciate some of the work there. Some of them were smudged from the half-marathon event held there earlier that morning - again symptomatic of bad planning ....