Thaipusam photography

Anyone here has any recent experience with photographing the Thaipusam festival in Malaysia (Namely KL and Penang; I think there is also one in Singapore)? I have done it in KL twice.

This is closer to "event photography" than street photography I think.

Very colourful. Crowded. Thousands of people . Light is usually flat due to overcast skies. Those of main interest are in trance by the way (may affect technique). Backgrounds are messy in the crowds.

Personally I prefer 24mm (up close photojournalist style, primes with short focusing distance), 35 or 50mm. My best shots have been when I have to push in right up close to the piercings time to capture this. There are other environmental portraits that can be had. They cannot pose for you when they're in trance, but during the head shaving part, environmental portraits can be great especially with children.

Planning for next year. I am thinking of trying out Terry Richardson style of flash (mainly for fill - likely -1/3 or -2/3 fill) with a flash diffuser and a flash mounted close to the lens using a rig similar to the one used by Terry Richardson.

I often find a bit of flash really brings out the colour due to the dull sky/flat lighting scenario. I have even got some ""in your face" shots to get some twinkle in the eyes of those in trance (50mm lens angle. Cannot be too close. Sometimes they do 'hiss' at you but take the shots and move on. Such shots are wonderful actually as they do look at you. I'm not offending anyone and people don't go after you for doing this. People have short memories as the event is quite hectic. I have dislike the shadow cast by my previous flash technique before learning the Terry style.

The layering style is also great and even this works well with a bit of fill flash.

Has anyone tried this or experiment with such set ups? I'm thinking of trying such set ups with my Fuji X100T.

Any special tips?

Thanks.