I was looking through my archives when I came across the photos I took during the 2004 National Day Parade. It was still held at the grand dame that is the National Stadium, which sadly has been demolished, and replaced with an overpriced structure which did not make a good NDP location.
This is probably the only National Day Parade at the old National Stadium which I’ve attended and photographed. If I remember correctly, I won the pair of tickets to this 2004 NDP from some contest.
I’ve subsequently attended the NDP at the Marina Bay Floating Platform thanks to friends who passed me extra tickets, but the experience is not quite the same. In the stadium, the energy from the crowd is more palpable, with the semi-enclosed nature of the stadium amplifying their energy.
With the COVID-19 pandemic that’s still going on, we will not be having such a large scale parade this year. So let’s reminisce the parade from the good old days.
Happy National Day, Singapore!
One interesting thing I’ve noted is that back then, the National Flag is flown by a Chinook flanked by two more Chinooks. Recently, we have changed to a Chinook flying the flag is flanked by two Apache helicopters.
