This edition of This Is My City Festival’s (TIMC) highlights include a neon lights contest, cine-concerts, calligraphy, yoga, and more! In this extraordinary year, TIMC seizes the opportunity and embraces new challenges, this time with an exclusive bet on local creations, and including more than 30 artists.
The nights of November 13 and 14 are dedicated to concerts, namely of rock and independent music, and then funk, respectively. TIMC 2020 is divided into two blocks. The first weekend of the festival is dedicated to concerts at D2 CLUB. The second block of events takes Place at Navy Yard #2–in Barra–on November 20, 21 and 22, with a wide range of shows and activities.
November 13 is all about rock and independent music. This day’s concerts open with 澳門PIXELS, the local project that by admiration and talent, plays some of the themes of the iconic American alternative rock band, Pixies. The concerts go on with Ryan Carrol, known to the local community for playing a bit all over and for representing the concept of the “one-man show”.
The night continues with a trio of DJs who promise to keep the audience on track. Trainspotters are a local collective that got together by chance to “play” some hits. Local adhesion did not take long to get stronger, and now they’re associated with the idea of ‘quality music in the dance floor’. To close the evening, there will be a surprise debut of two DJs, specially prepared for the opening of 2020 TIMC Festival.
November 14 promises the best of Funk music. The concert is exclusive and also a premiere for the band ARI and the Party Animals. ARI is a musician well-known for his versatility when it comes to music as he sings and plays several instruments. Now, with him, there will be seven more artists on stage to perform funk hits with their original arrangements. This first block of the festival closes with another DJ Set. Without losing the rhythm Lobo Ip is responsible for the musical choice.
Continuing to invest in original content, the highlight of the TIMC 2020 program is the presentation of two sessions of cine-concerts. There will be classics of silent-era cinema that marked the beginning of the seventh art and that still stand out internationally. To give sound to the images, TIMC challenged several local musicians to compose and interpret the soundtracks, considering the adaptation of the musicians’ personality to the contents of the films.
The highlight spots the 1934 feature film “The Goddess” directed by Yonggang Wu and performed by the iconic actress Ruan Lingyu, on the 21st of November. The selection of “The Goddess” was based on its timeliness concerning the argument that deals with themes such as the exploitation of human beings and the treatment of women and social discrimination. The film that marks the end of the last days of silent cinema will be sounded by the Faslane project and the artist Akitsugu Fukushima.
On the following day, the program is filled with short films selected for their aesthetics and relevance in the history of silent cinema. Among them, there are “Alice in Wonderland” from 1903, with music by local pianist Frog.W, “The Dancing Pig” from 1907 that will be paired with Paulo Pereira’s live concert, Hans Richter’s “Vormittagsspuk” (Ghosts Before Breakfast), and Segundo de Chomón’s “Le Voyage sur Jupiter” (Voyage to Jupiter) and “La Grenouille” (The Frog) will be performed by Iat U Hong, Dickson Cheong and Rui Rasquinho.
Yoga is also an important part of this year’s programming. The promotion of healthy living habits is also one of the traits that differentiate TIMC 2020 from previous editions. This year, TIMC will have a program dedicated to Yoga. In times marked by the pandemic, the idea is to warn about the importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle. To this end, the program features several yoga sessions created specifically for this TIMC and dedicated to all kinds of public, to be held on November 20, 21 and 22. Rita Gonçalves, Lily Li, and Valentina are the invited instructors and will be accompanied by Gil Araújo’s Tibetan Bowls. Yoga sessions have a limited number of participants and previous registration is required.
Calligraphy is another challenge for TIMC 2020 in the production of original content. On stage, there will be a quartet of artists that will work together for the first time. Two calligraphers, one who masters Western calligraphy and one who masters Chinese calligraphy, will perform their techniques. At the same time, the images of this performance are manipulated by Os Wei as a VJ and with simultaneous creation of sound by the DJ A Long.
This second part kicks off on November 21 with the inauguration of the photography installation by the creator of multimedia content, Os Wei. On the same day, TIMC welcomes a special gig with electronic tones with Concrete Lotus. An after-party is also being held at Live Music Association (LMA).
TIMC 2020 launches an invitation to Macau’s population. It is an open dedicated to the theme and basis of the image of this edition–Neon Lights. People are challenged to pick up their mobile phones, search for emblematic neons that characterize “our” urban landscape and to publish their photos with the hashtag #timcneonhunt2020. The images will be projected throughout the second block of events, from November 20 to 22, at the Navy Yard #2. The goal is to recover one of the most iconic local images of Macau and make a tribute to the neon lights that still resist and as a remembrance to those who still dedicate their lives to this disappearing craft.
When: November 13 and 14, 20–22, 2020
Concerts (Pixels, Ryan Carroll and Trainspotters, Ari & the Party Animals, Lobo Ip) – 11:00pm, Friday and Saturday, November 13 and 14, 2020
Photo installation and calligraphy performance – 5:30pm, Friday, November 20, 2020
Concert (Concrete Lotus) – 8:00pm, Friday, November 20, 2020
Yoga sessions – 9:00pm, Friday, November 20, 10:00am, 12:45pm, 2:30pm and 9:00pm, Saturday, November 21, 2020 and 10:00am, 12:45pm, 2:30pm and 9:00pm, Sunday, November 22, 2020
After-party at LMA – 11:00pm, Saturday, November 21, 2020
Cine-concerts – 7:00pm (one cine-concert), Saturday, November 21 and 7:00pm (five cine-concerts), Sunday, November 22, 2020
Where: D2 Club, Avenida da Amizade e Avenida Dr. Sun Yat-Sen, NAPE, Macau, Navy Yard 2, Rua de S. Tiago da Barra, Macau and Live Music Association, 50 Avenida do Coronel Mesquita, San Mei Industrial Building 11B/F, Macau
How much: Concerts at D2 – MOP $180 per person (including two drinks)
Free admission for all the other festival’s events
For more information on schedule, locations and programme, check the organizer’s Facebook page
