Filipino maids were seen having a street-party at the walkway outside Ion Orchard (Photo: Yahoo!).
There’s a new party hotspot at Orchard Road, but it’s not a club.
Before Ion Orchard was built, Filipino maids gathered at this busy junction on Orchard Road and held picnics on the grass patch behind Orchard MRT station.
Now, the Filipino maids are back with a group bigger and certainly merrier than ever, turning the walkway outside Ion Orchard into a whole new party scene.
The spot, which they called “Gulong Park” (Gulong is Tagalog for wheel), has been developed into the current premier shopping mall, carrying some of the world’s top luxury brands.
Last Sunday, hundreds of maids were seen turning the former Gulong Park into a rock ‘n’ roll party scene. The street party was kicked off at 8 pm by husband-and-wife busking team — Leticia Habon Caya and Qamaruddin Mohd Amin.
More than 500 maids had parked themselves outside Ion Orchard — some were sitting on the steps, others were on their feet, grooving to the “live” music.
“This is better than going to a disco. It’s more fun and it’s free and I meet people from my hometown,” said Ms Lona, 25, as she danced to the music.
She praised her employers, who are expatriates, for being open-minded and for allowing her to party till late on Sunday nights. She came here to work last year.
“The party will end at 10 pm and I will go home after this. Some of my friends’ employers are very strict with them and don’t allow them to come here.
Singaporean men among the crowd would invite Filipinas to dance.
Creating a home away from home is exactly what busker Leticia, 57 and her husband, Qamaruddin, 61, try to do for these maids.
Madam Leticia came here to work as a singer 25 years ago. She married Mr Qamaruddin and is now a permanent resident (PR). The couple makes a living from playing at private parties and corporate functions.
They applied for and received their licence three years ago to busk at certain spots along Orchard Road. Madam Leticia sings while her husband plays the keyboard.
She told The New Paper, “We would be busking on Orchard Road from Tuesdays to Sundays, if we don’t have private gigs to play in. We started busking outside Mandarin Hotel before moving to Ngee Ann City.
“The crowd was getting bigger and we decided to move to outside Ion Orchard on Sundays to accommodate the crowd. Sometimes we have double of tonight’s crowd, like maybe 1,000 people. It’s amazing.”
The couple entertain the crowd with songs by Santana, and popular hits like the Wonder Girls’ Nobody and Gloria Gaynor’s I Will Survive.
Not everyone is happy
Shopper Kelly Chen, 38, a communications director, said, “I feel that they are downgrading the image of Ion Orchard. I’ll avoid going there on Sundays now.”
The maids also sit on the steps leading to the mall's entrance. (Photo: Yahoo!).
Lawyer Amolat Singh is more concerned with the potential law and order problems. “When authorities organise parties on Orchard Road, a lot of effort has to be put into crime prevention,” he said.
Mr Singh added that if the maids created a public nuisance, the police could act.
“One could also argue that these women are providing public entertainment by dancing in public. The authority (the Public Entertainment Licensing Unit) can relook into issuing such busking licences to not-so-hotspots instead.”
Previously, the maids had been chased out of Lucky Plaza as the management said they had vandalised the building. Their mass gatherings were also said to have caused overcrowding and posed a threat to safety in the mall.
But the spokesman for Ion Orchard would not be drawn into a debate over the maids’ presence.
“Ion Orchard’s prominent location and direct connection to Orchard MRT makes it a popular and natural meeting point on Orchard Road,” said the spokesman.