On December 16, 2020, the annual Art Festival for SHSID high school students took place in the Grand Auditorium.

On the morning, students from grades 11 and 12 gathered in the Grand Auditorium to celebrate the first Art Festival of 2020. After an official opening from the eight hosts Felix, Henry, Jessie, Julia, Jessie, Lauren, Stanley, and Yuyi, 26 phenomenal performances began to dazzle the audience onstage.

This year's Art Festival featured a collection of pleasant surprises: a taekwondo dance fusing traditional with modern elements, a stunning swords dance, and an elegant traditional Chinese dance. Traditional crowd favorites continued to grace the stage in the form of various K-pop dances, solo singing and rapping, acapella, piano concertos, and rock bands. There was also a heartwarming collection of singing renditions including many touching duets. In between the performances, students also had the chance to participate in lotteries to win gift bags after bouncing a king-sized beach ball above the audience seats. Finally, the much-awaited annual teachers’ performance took to the stage and did not disappoint. Three groups of teachers showcased completely different styles, including various currently trending dances from China and overseas. The hosts’ performance acted as a final cherry on top to the Art Festival as they amused the audience with their singing and comedic dialogue.

At 1:15 PM, the hosts appeared in front of the crowd to announce the start of this year’s Art Festival. Lifting up the curtains, the audience saw the members of the wind ensemble in their positions; as tradition goes, they were the ones to start off. They performed the piece “Danzas Cubanas”, bringing delight to the audience.

After the great performance from the wind ensemble, the Art Festival proceeded to become an event of visual and auditory pleasure. The festival included a piano performance by Max from Grade 9, a Vicetone performance by Alex from Grade 10, a solo performance of an original song by Doran from Grade 10, and even a Kungfu performance by Xabat from Grade 9. Aside from individual shows, there is also the performance brought by the string ensemble, an AC/DC rock, an acappella medley, a Janggu piece, and a chorus. Of course, the festival was also filled with awe-inspiring K-Pop dances from both grades.

The growing enthusiasm of the audience was fully ignited when the ZTB teachers appeared on stage for a show. Many students saw their familiar teachers dressed up in exotic costumes, and became filled with excitement. Aside from this surprising event, there were also lottery sessions to boost this stage-audience engagement.

The art festivals came to an end at 4:00 pm. All the performances had their own highlights; everyone certainly had their own opinions on the best show, as the festival concluded with a perfect close. Thanks for all the efforts of the students and teachers. See you next year!

（Written by Xinyu Li, Ziling Jiang, Ziyang Gu Pictures by Haige Zhang, Ethan Lee, Ray Zhou, Anita Hua, Amy Wang, Annie Zeng, Mandy Chen, Siying Dai, Anqing Chen,Hui Liao, Hao Sun Supervised by Hazel Gu, Jialong Liu, Sijia He, Cheer Zhang）