36th Macao Arts Festival opens this Friday Activity “Where culture flourishes, happiness happens” – Flash Mob in the Community to build anticipation Tickets for all programmes on sale from this Saturday

MACAU, May 7 - Organised by the Cultural Affairs Bureau (IC, from the Portuguese acronym), the 36^th Macao Arts Festival, themed “New Streams of Inspiration”, will have its opening ceremony on 8 May (Friday), at 7:45pm at the lobby of the Macao Cultural Centre. To build momentum for the opening of the event, the BIRLIK Song and Dance Ensemble from Kazakhstan – one of the groups performing in the Grand Opening: Lotus on the Silk Road – Traditions in Motion –presents a series of activities titled “Where culture flourishes, happiness happens” – Flash Mob in the Community across various districts on 7 and 9 May. Furthermore, tickets for all festival programmes will be available for public sale simultaneously from 10:00am on 9 May (Saturday) through the Enjoy Macao Ticketing outlets, telephone and online booking. With a range of special discounts available, the public is welcome to purchase tickets.

The activity “Where culture flourishes, happiness happens” – Flash Mob in the Community will feature vibrant traditional dances by the BIRLIK Song and Dance Ensemble from Kazakhstan. Today (7 May), the performances took place at the Leisure Area in Rotunda de Carlos da Maia at 1:30pm and at Luís de Camões Park at 4:30pm. On 9 May (Saturday), the group will continue to inject artistic colour into the community with performances at the Leisure Area in Praceta de Venceslau de Morais at 10:30am and Areia Preta Urban Park at noon.

Concurrently, tickets for a wide array of performances will go on sale simultaneously from 10:00am on 9 May through the Enjoy Macao Ticketing outlets, telephone and online booking, including The Starry Night – The Musical and 1014 - Nanyin x Jazz, the monologue Between the Lines, the dance performances Double Bill and Divine Comedy, the classic ballet Swan Lake, and the play Her Dynasty. On the first day of ticket sales, ticket purchases for these seven performances are limited to a maximum of 10 tickets per performance per person.

The Festival offers several ticketing discounts: for the local programmes, such as Everlasting Youth 2.0, Now What?, Lotus Heart, The Old House of Orchid and The Night of Zheng Guanying – Environmental Dance Theatre, will receive a 30% discount on ticket purchases for any two performances of the local programmes, or when purchasing 10 or more tickets for the same performances, or when purchasing tickets for 3 different performances at the same time. BOC Credit Card or BOC Card holders enjoy a 30% discount on number of tickets for the special performances Divine Comedy and Swan Lake. Members of the public who purchase an unlimited number of tickets for the non-special performances with a MasterCard, Visa or UnionPay card from BNU, ICBC (Macau), Luso International Banking Ltd., BCM Bank, Tai Fung Bank and OCBC Macau will receive a 20% discount on ticket purchases. A 50% discount will be offered to holders of Macao Senior Citizen Card or Disability Assessment Registration Card and for holders of a full-time student card (holders of local or overseas student card); each cardholder can only use one discounted ticket per performance. For every ticket purchase over MOP500 (net price after discounts), purchasers will receive one MGM dinning voucher. Air Macau customers can enjoy a 20% discount on ticket purchases at the Enjoy Macao Ticketing outlets by presenting their respective boarding pass (flight code NX) within 7 days upon their arrival in Macao.

For more information about the programmes, outreach activities, ticket purchase, other discounts and the Enjoy Macao Ticketing outlets, please visit the 36^th MAF’s website (www.icm.gov.mo/fam), follow the respective page on Facebook (search “Macao Arts Festival”), or subscribe to IC’s official WeChat account (IC_Art_Macao). 24-hour ticketing hotline: 2840 0555 (Macao). Online ticket reservation is available at ticketing.enjoymacao.mo.