NEXT year's Chingay Parade will move from City Hall to the Formula One Pit Building at the Marina waterfront to allow more spectators to take in the annual street parade.

Some 32,000 people will get to see the show live next year, compared to 16,600 who caught the show this year at Padang and the 10,000 who used to catch it in Orchard Road.

People's Association, which organises the annual event, announced this on Tuesday morning at the first media conference to present the highlights of what is in store for next year's event.

The wider roads and bigger seating capacity will transform the next parade into something quite different, said Mr Nah Juay Hng, chairman of Chingay 2010 executive committee.

Next year's parade will be held on Feb 19 and 20.

Orchard Road, as a venue, could take only 5,500 spectators a night, with little standing room left. Things improved a little when the annual parade moved to Padang for the last two years as Orchard Road underwent a makeover. Even then, the Padang area could take only some 8,300 seats a night. The F1 Pit will double the capacity to 18,000 a night, Mr Nah said.

New partners like Singapore Flyer and Resorts World at Sentosa are also participating in the next Chingay. The Sentosa integrated resort will be sending its own performers and float to take part in the show, as a sneak preview to what will be offered when the casino-resort opens in early 2010.

For the coming Chingay, popular folk legends like the Chinese tale of the Butterfly Lovers, the Malay Puteri Gunung Ledang and the Tamil Indralogam will also be included to inject some local flavour to the event. After last year's spectacular performance by the Tong Liang Fire Dragon which also performed in the opening ceremony of last year's Olympic Games in Beijing, Chingay is bringing in a fire cracker dragon performance too.

More details on the acts coming up during the event will be announced later.

Tickets for the event will go on sale from Aug 1. More information on www.chingay.org.sg