Carlsberg Where's The Party

Guinness: "Rawr... Arthur's Day is the party of the year!"

"Ya right..." The crowd half-booed. As if their energy dries off. Perhaps drained by the intolerable and suffering massive jam.

Guinness: "6 million pints of Guinness is consumed daily worldwide. Here's to Arthur!"

"To Arthurrrrrr..." Again... the crowd said with a drowning rrrrr. Half raising their glasses to cheers, if only they have one in their hands.

Carlsberg: "Step aside! Come with me if you wanna know Where's The Partyyyyy!"

A robotic voice pierced through the night air! I thought it sounded almost like Optimus Prime. In no time, the air above swirled, winds beating on our faces and oh my hair! And o.m.g... is that a... wait I don't know what it is called. A helicopter? A spaceship? Hell I don't care... It's coming for us. I don't know how but I just knew it! I reach out my hands to it. Hoping for some miracle to happen, like being sucked into it and transported to wherever the party is. Soon enough at a blink of an eye, I'm there!

Ftw! I just telepathed!

And oops... Carlsberg just kicked Guinness on the ass!

_______________________________________________

First thing first, don't get me wrong. I love the Guinness brand, thought it looks cool with all the black and gold colors combination. I love drinking Guinness too, especially from the bottle, the draught one tastes a little bit more bitter though.

But put aside my love for Guinness, Guinness Arthur's Day 2011 sucks. And that's a fact, at least to me. If the Guinness team wants to brand their party as the party of the year, they better put in 120% more effort the next time.

Okay, enough about Guinness. Let's talk about Carlsberg's "Where's The Party". If I'm not wrong, this is the second installation of such themed event organized by Carlsberg. From a consumer point of view, I think it is really an interesting, out of the box branding idea. The alcoholic beverages industry in Malaysia is a semi-dark industry. With so many restriction imposed on the industry, marketing has become very challenging. I applause for the ones who thought about this. It manages to significantly differentiate itself and stand out from its competitors of which I will not name; instead of creating the usual buzz about a party/event of the scale as big as this, the title and mystery in itself creates wonders. The way the Carlsberg's marketing team made it so secretive is actually kind of alluring to many party peeps out there. Whether you like it or not, we people always are being pulled into some secretive and forbidden agenda, and that's why the Twilight Saga made such a big hoo-hah. And Carlsberg manage to bank on this dark side of human.

So, where's the party this year? I heard babe said the party was at Sepang Gold Coast last year and there were so many interesting games to play. I really am anticipating somewhere some place like beach side... until we were brought to... Carlsberg's factory. What a surprise *duh*.

Arriving at Shah Alam Stadium for registration

Met someone there

After registering ourself, each of us have one of this

The RFID tag which is linked to your Facebook account. 

Now this is cool!

Us in the bus waiting to be ferried to the party's site

which the ambassador still remained very secretive of it at this point of time

It's raining heavily out there

But it doesn't stop the people from attending this awesome party

Finally we arrived to the secret destination
Carlsbery Brewery
My heart sinks a little, honestly

We were approached with a very warm welcoming

with pretty chicks and drum beats

See the foods stalls and beer booths?

Everything FREE FLOW all day long

See... Babe was so happy seeing all the free satayyyy that he can have

It's best to eat some ice creams when it's chilly

Met my colleagues - Jimmy & JenQ

Alex finally arrived

It looks like they have moved the entire fun fair here to this factory site of Carlsberg. I was quite taken aback, in a pleasant way, when I discovered that games are prepared for us to explore. There were also prizes to be won by playing and winning over the simple criteria of the games.

The magnificent Ferris Wheel :) 

The Pirate Ship... Probably the scariest of all that I've ride because there was no safety belt for you to buckle yourself up!

Didn't manage to ride this because the queue is crazy.

Should be fun!

There were so many mini games we couldn't care less to take any photos but just to enjoy them... Here are some of the photos show casing the some of mini games available. Taken from Carlsberg's albums @ Facebook.

Night befall upon us and hey, the party still keep on going because the night is still young! It's time for the concert now! Let's rock!

What makes this party even more awesome was when Soren, the managing director of Carlsberg Malaysia, came on stage and did some rapping! He totally rocked the stage. Seriously, I salute him. How many managing director would actually do or can do that? Greattt... Just greattt!

The crowd

We left earlier before the party end, catching the first bus back to Shah Alam stadium where our cars rest.

There are some rooms for improvement though, like better location and giving us a list of the mini games available for enjoyment so we wouldn't miss any bit of them. But, in conclusion, this party totally rocks!

Carlsberg, totally the party rocker! Yeah!

A Magical Night Out

A whole new world

A dazzling place I never knew

But now from way up here

It's crystal clear

That now I'm in a whole new world with you

That's right. If you manage to hum the above lyrics to the tune of "A Whole New World", a ballad sung originally by Brad Kane and Lea Salonga, then you are no stranger to the 1992 animated Disney tale, Aladdin.

Almost 18 years later, in present time - 2011, Aladdin flew (I still want to believe, in his magic carpet) to Malaysia, granting us Disney's lovers our wishes, by performing live in Sunway Lagoon. (You bet. I always wanted them, and all Disney's fairy tales to come alive, when I was young. A brain spoiled by fantasy huh...).

So, here I was, sitting at the bench of the Amphitheatre of Sunway Lagoon, eagerly waiting for the Musical to start. But firstly, I would like to extend my thanks to Feeq for presenting me with this chance, and Pat from Avante, the organizer, who saved me two tix so I could attend this magical musical with my love one. If not for them, I wouldn't be able to be here warming the bench with my a**. xD

If you think this musical spells geeks and nerds, or that it is only for children and hence you worry it would be boring and dull, fret not! Because this is not your typical Disney musical. First thing first, as all live musical would have, the production brings us special stage effects such as flying carpet, pyrotechnics, some real living livestock running wild on the stage, and snow or I should say bubble snow! Snow in Malaysia? Just you wait and see! Should you ever decide to see the performance for yourself, do anticipate the entrance of Aladdin. It's extraordinary! 

As for the numbers, they are a mixture of classical songs and contemporary ones that you are so very familiar with, I bet you won't be able to contain your giggling and laughter. The plus point of all, do anticipate the crème de la crème of the musical, a rapping genie, who dresses in sparkling gold outfit. How about that for a musical, huh! 


On top of that, just when I thought the cast will be lips-sync-ing, they actually sang throughout the entire stage performance, like for real. And they don't sound a bit awful, at all. The octaves Aladdin and Princess Jasmine can hit and the stability of their voices singing while dancing are just great. How cool is that! Considering this point alone, your time and money spent are already worth it for sure.


All are perfect, except for one things that is missing. Where is Abu, Aladdin's kleptomaniac sidekick pet monkey and best friend? Still remember this cute little creature? How could this cute little friend not being cast in this musical? Well... guess the troubles it takes to train a monkey may be too much. Haha.

If there is only 1 thing that I would complain, it is with regards to timeliness. If I'm not mistaken, the musical is supposed to be starting at 7:45pm, or so it is stated in the tix, but it did not begin until it was 8:15pm. So that was a half an hour wait, and the 2-hour performance ended more than half an hour later than it was supposed to be. After which we were caught up in the after-shopping-hour massive jam. Thanks to the rain as well. Speaking of which, kind of ruined the supposed-to-be fun train ride. 

Oh did I mention there were these toot-toot-trains prepared for us, bringing us back and forth from the Surf Beach entrance to the Amphitheater? How thoughtful! But the rain made me asking for more, and I wished that they could provide umbrellas or shaded walkways as well. How unappreciative I was back then huh... But seriously, the wet jeans and shoes kind of drown the mood a bit. I do appreciate the thoughtfulness though.

For those of you who plan to get tix to this musical, don't bother to pack any foods or beverages because they will be confiscated at the entrance. But don't freak out on not having anything to bite on during the show as they have this concession booth selling a numbers of snacks and drinks. Nonetheless, I seriously hate that they mark-up the prices. RM5 each for a cup of sweet corn, a bagful of popcorn, a bottle of 500ml mineral water, etc.? Thanks but no thanks, I rather eat air.

Lol, so, that's not 1 but 3 things I complained about. Anyways, all of these are no big deal when you really enjoy the show. And trust me, by the end of the show, you will find yourself standing up on your feet, dance and shake and sing along with the cast!

If you are a big fan of musical, and especially a Disney's tale musical, or if you want to take a date for a memorable night out, or if you just want to spend a fun weekend with your family and kids, why not check out Aladdin The Musical! It is ready to bring you to a whole new world from 25 Nov 2011 - 2 Jan 2012. Plan which show time to go from this chart:

Note from the chart that the musical will be staged once a day at 8:00pm, and twice on Saturdays at 7:15pm and 9:15pm. Bear in mind that there will be no show on Tuesday though. Good news for you peeps who are looking forward to have a memorable Christmas and New Year celebrations, as Aladdin The Musical is putting on an extra show on the 25th of Dec and 1st of Jan (both Sundays)! Yay!

Below showed the price of tic for adults and children:

So, remember to book a tix today! :)