Held annually on 9 August, it is the main public celebration of National Day, and consists of a parade incorporating contingents of the Singapore Armed Forces, Ministry of Home Affairs, local institutions and community groups, followed by a cultural presentation featuring music, dance displays, parachuters, and a fireworks show.

[1][2] These full-scale, replica productions every weekend allow for up to 300,000 Singaporeans to participate as a spectator at one of the parades, with tens of thousands more around Marina Bay taking in the weekly aerial flypast and fireworks display each Saturday evening.

[6][7] 1969's parade, the one where the Mobile Column made its first drivepast, commemorated the 150th year of the city's founding and had Princess Alexandra of the UK as principal guest.

The 1976 parade dance performers were mostly female students from the country's schools, since that year marked the start of the United Nations Decade for Women.

Other introductions were featured over the years such as the first appearance of the massed military bands of the SAF (1987), the card stunt (1988), and the Red Lions parachute team and the daylight fireworks (1989).

[15] The 2014 installment also featured its first female Red Lion parachutist to jump at the NDP, Third Warrant Officer Shirley Ng, after their initial performance in 2013 was cancelled due to weather conditions.

[18] In 2016, the NDP was held for the first time at the new National Stadium, in an event that required modifications to the parade's format due to the limitations of the venue.

Contrarily, it was argued that not hosting the NDP at the new National Stadium would free up its schedule for major international sporting events, especially during the summer months.

Appearances by the Mobile Column, Red Lions, and flyovers by F-15SG fighters were scheduled across Singapore, while the traditional Funpacks given at the parade were shipped to each resident.

[14] Although offering about 60,000 seats in the National Stadium, the demand for tickets remained high, resulting in several attempts to decentralise the event to bring the celebration closer to more Singaporeans.

With the shifting of venues for some editions of the parade, or in cases such as wet weather, programmes may have to cancel or introduce slight modifications in order to suit the changes, for instance the Mobile Column, which is only possible both at the Padang site and at Marina Bay.

Initially introduced on an ad hoc basis as an informal filler, it has since become an integral part of the parade particularly when live television coverage was extended to this segment in recent years.

The City Marchpast made its sixth consecutive appearance in the 2015 edition and was carried on in 2016 together with the Onward March from the new National Stadium and again from Marina Bay in 2017 and 2018.

In 1990, after a three-year hiatus since the parade of 1987, the Mobile Column returned as part of the silver jubilee of Singapore's independence with veterans from the Indonesia-Malaysia confrontation and retired personnel from the 1967–68 NS intakes first up, transported on trucks.

Almost every NDP since 1971 (except 2016) has had a flypast segment featuring jet and training aircraft, transports and helicopters from the Republic of Singapore Air Force.

In lieu of the 2018 D3, as part of the parade and ceremony segment of the program, a special flypast of the RSAF was held in that year's edition to mark its golden jubilee.

The 1980 parade marchpast segment in the Former National Stadium ended with a small civilian mobile column featuring classic cars, bicycles and motorcycles seen on Singapore's roads in the past.

It has its origins in early NDPs as various mass display items put up by community groups or schools to add colour to the otherwise military parade.

Lion and dragon dance troupes from various community centres and clan associations would gather on the field to the resonating sound of drumbeats to put on a fiery display that end the parade on an auspicious note, joined by flag dancers.

Since 2016, volunteers from Team Nila are also involved as Precinct Ushers, Safety Management Aides and, most recently, as pre-show Active Health Ambassadors.

The afterparty celebrations usually last for an hour and ends with the Chief of Defence Force, the Chairman of that year's NDP EXCO and the organisers to cutting a cake to commemorate the efforts with the participants as well as speeches of gratitude to the audience for another great performance.

2016 will see the medley also accompanied by special needs students provided by the seven Voluntary Welfare Organisations of the island country hand-signing for the deaf and hard of hearing who will take part, yet another first.

Local songbirds that made it big in regional music scenes, such as Kaira Gong, Kit Chan, Corrine May, Stefanie Sun and Tanya Chua have been invited back home to perform various National Day theme songs.

The winner of Singapore Idol 2004, Taufik Batisah, became a prominent choice to lead the nation in singing the NDP 2005's theme song "Reach Out for the Skies", alongside singer-actress Rui En.

[45] In place of the theme song was three songs were remade into two music videos: "We Will Get There" and "One People, One Nation, One Singapore" sung by Ann Hussein, Rahimah Rahim, Gayle Nerva, Farisha Ishak, Tay Kewei and Tabitha Nauser; and "What Do You See" sung by Fauzie Laily, Jack Ho, Kartik Kunasegaran, Sivadorai "Rai" Sellakannu and Shaun Jansen.

The most recent installment to feature an original theme song is 2024's "Not Alone", sung by Benjamin Kheng and the SAF Music and Drama Company Singers.

[47] The unity of Singaporeans, in spite of their race and religion, is also highlighted by imagery that seeks to bring the country together,[48] such as through the collective 'lion's roar' in the lyrics of "We Are Singapore" (1987).

[52] A survey conducted by the Lee Kuan Yew Centre For Innovative Cities in 2021 found songs released prior to 2000 to be more popular with Singaporeans.

These goodies include food, drinks, vouchers from various participating companies and sponsors, items and commodities intended for the use during the parade, such as a theme-designed torchlight and the Singapore flag.

[56] The funpacks are constructed by national servicemen; that year, the NDP began experiments with using powered exoskeletons and mobile robots to assist in production.