Singapore Arts Festival 2011

Introduction, Characteristics and the Journey

In Event Management, we are tasked individually to visit and blog about an event. Out of all the choices of event, I chose Singapore Art Festival 2011.  The reason why I chose this event was because I had not visited any arts festival before and I’m interested and curious to experience it. 

 

The Singapore Art Festival has been around since 1977 as a national showcase celebrating the local arts of Singapore’s diverse communities. The festival is organized by the National Arts Council, which played a symbolic and catalytic role in the development of the artistic and cultural side of Singapore. Over the years, Singapore Arts Festival has now become an international showcase of ideas, art and discourse with a distinctive Asian flavour, known for its bold and innovative discussions between vernacular and contemporary art. The purpose of this Singapore Arts Festival is to promote the arts of different culture. Singapore is a multi-racial country and the need for understanding of each culture is vital, therefore, the National Arts Council organized an event to celebrate the local art activities of different community in the country. Besides that, the event also developed into an affair that provides a platform for Singapore artists and international artists to showcase their art work and in hope, cultivate the imagination and creativity of Singaporeans, young and old.

Singapore Arts Festival has become even more popular over the years; it is a major event for Singapore as it is a grand event by their scale and media interest, attracting significant visitor numbers, media coverage and economic benefits. In 2010, the event reported good attendance as they sold out overall tickets of 71% and attendance for both ticketed and non-ticket performance was around 80,800 people. Singapore Arts Festival 2011 is taking place from 13 May to 5 June 2011, it is considered short term as it only occurs for 24 days. The event is open for public, and many activities and performance are free of charge, though there are some that requires fees and tickets. The theme for this year’s Festival is I want to remember, thus people coming together for a same purpose of having a recollection with memories, histories and places. The purpose is to engage visitors with the past and redefines the way we look at the present, as we race toward the future.

There are many different activities and performances lined up at different venues; I attended the Festival Village and one of the events that happened outside the theatre at the bay at Esplanade. 

The first stop that I made was the Festival Village that is located at Esplanade Park. I was greeted by the sweet voices from Yesterday – Mobile Karaoke, which was outside the Festival Village. It is a minivan that also acts as a stage whereby people select songs and sing to the audience. It greatly reminded me ‘Gei tai’, even more so when the majority of the crowd were elderly. It provided a platform for elderly to perform timeless classics and reminisce the beauty of old school music. The environment was magnificent as you had the opportunity to see the cities of Singapore; Marina Bay sands, Fullerton hotel, etc. And the venue of the performance was visible and can be easily spotted as they used bright lights to make it dazzling and eye-catching. However it is relatively small and as such, they did not require much manpower. The logistics used is basic equipments like speakers, mice, and bright lighting.

After which, we continued to walk into the Festival Village, it is actually the heart of the Singapore Arts Festival 2011 to be inspired by the arts. It provides lots of action with different things to see and do. There are staged performances, engaging exhibitions and numerous striking installations. It is Singapore’s largest-ever outdoor performance theatre.

The first booth we went was a game station that allowed people to play games related to the arts lifestyle. After which we went to the Salon Space, where you get to see magnificent art work being displayed. There are also unique plants and rocks which you will not be able to find anywhere else in Singapore. Beside Salon Space, there was a gift shop whereby people can go over and buy hand-made goods, or even limited edition festival merchandises.

The Tuck-shop is basically a place selling foods and beverages, they offered finger food, alcohol, beers and etc. There are two stages found in the Festival Village, the main and the secondary stage. The secondary stage mainly holds performance that is free of charge and the area is generally smaller. Unfortunately, there were no performances at that timing when we were there. However, the main stage is used for ticketed performance. The ticket cost $35 which was costly, thus we decided to skip it. But, we manage to peep part of the concert at the side of the main stage. They used wood and metal rods to make the stage, seats and platform. The performance was called the Conference of the Birds. The birds gathered as their world quaked. They couldn’t thrive in this age of entropy and disenchantment. Their world was disintegrating and they needed their king – the Sigmorgh – to lead them.

The last stop that we visited in the Festival Village was the Kids Arts Village. This is the first-ever Kids Arts Village at the Festival Village at Esplanade. Kids Arts Village is a special visual and performing arts space specially created by children for children to allow their imagination to run wild. There was a great deal of drawings and scrapbooks that was done solely by the children themselves. The kids will get a show devised especially for them as well as have the opportunity to get creative themselves. Their entire art piece will be displayed all around the kids’ village.

The last place was to the theatre at the bay at Esplanade, there were outdoor performances and is open to the public. A group of performers will gather themselves and perform 33 different stunts in 30 minutes for the audiences. The performance was stunning as they did many dangerous stunts, like standing on broken glass pieces, juggling people using their legs, etc. Everyone was amazed and enjoyed the performance tremendously. 

                                                    A short clip about the performance.                                          

Strengths & Weaknesses

Place

The venue of the event is quite troublesome and confusing as me and my friends took some time to figure out where is it. We only managed to find out the places with the help of the event’s marshal. Imagine even a Singaporean finding it difficult to locate the exact place, how will a foreigner be able to find it? It is actually quite a long walk from the Esplanade’s Mass rapid transit (MRT) station. However, the environment they chose went hand in hand with the theme as it is surrounded by cities. They used mainly wood as the whole events and were in a park, thus it is simple and it goes well together.

Programming

The programming was well organized and planned as at any time, at least an activity or performance is occurring, this ensured that participates would not get bored and have nothing to do. The programmes planned are pretty fresh and interesting, like the kids art village. However, from morning to late afternoon, the activities are mostly suitable for children, thus if adults were to visit at that point of time, they might get bored. The activities more suited for the working population are all happening on late afternoon and onwards, and vice versa.

Manpower 

The manpower allocation for the whole event was well organized. I can see sufficient manpower at every station. Due to the fact that the whole event was not major, thus they do not require large pool of manpower and it is easier to control the crowd.

Product

They came up with varieties of different performance and activities to attract and target every age group, children, adults, and teenagers. They also have free performance and activities that helps to attract new comers to witness the grant and excitement of the whole festival it may help to arouse their interest to come back the next year festival for a ticketed programme. 


Price
Nevertheless, some of the ticketed activities or performances are priced too costly, thus I believe many will not spend the money to watch the performance. 

Advertising

I feel that the advertising of the Singapore Arts Festival 2011 is insufficient; the campaign can be improved further to be more impactful and effective. If it were not because of this project, I probably would not even know anything about this event. The planners must also take into consideration that what they are selling out to the mass audience they must also cater to the different needs, wants and at the same time ensure that they will come and pay for the event. Thus, they made an effort to come out with different types of activities and performances to target all ages. I personally felt they did not really target the teenagers well enough. Most of the activities will not really catch and interest the teenagers.     

Logistics

The logistics used by this event was relatively simple with not much advance technology.. The sound and lighting system are all ordinary. It might be due to the budget as it is clearly shown that the whole event is cost-saving. However, what impressed me the most was the set up of the venue. It was custom-made with all hand-made materials like woods and metal. This can help to save a lot of costs and educate the public on the efficient use of natural materials and conservation.  

Services

The services provided by the helpers were very efficient and friendly. I asked them about the route to the festival village and they were very pleasant towards me and taught me how to get there. The information counter staff were also very knowledgeable and helpful as they provided us with ample information we needed, like for example what time is the next performance, what can we do here, etc. 

Maximizing Strengths & Minimizing Weaknesses

Place

The event can set up booths or information counter at the nearest Mass rapid transit (MRT) station, or even shopping mall so that it can guide people on how to go to the venue. This ensured that people would not waste time and effort finding the exact location of the place. It can also provide information about the whole events to interest shoppers or people who happen to be around that area. 

Programming

The Singapore Arts Festival are well organized and plan as there are various places having performances and activities at the same time, this provide more varieties choices for consumers. Some of the places are like Esplanade, National University Singapore (NUS), School of the Arts (SOTA), Golden village Vivo city, and LASALLE College of the arts. However, it is impossible to visit every venue in a day as it is quite far from each venue. Maybe the event planner should choose location like Expo that can hold every performance near to each other, so consumers can spend their whole day fruitfully at only one location instead of wasting time to moving around.

Product

The event have did well with coming up various performances, activities, arts show that cater to different needs of the audience. They had also had different performances to target on different target group, from children, teenagers, adults, and even elderly. However, I felt that not much activity really interest me, or rather the teenagers. Perhaps, Singapore Arts Festival can come up with more interesting activity that will attract and cause attention within teenagers. Either that or they can try to attract them by causing more awareness among them like maybe through the magazine, or internet where most teenagers are active in.

Price

Furthermore, most of the performances are ticketed. I personally felt that majority of it is too expensive, hence many people choose not to attend it. In any ways, if the ticket prices can be reduced it will definitely attract more crowds to the events.

Manpower and Logistics

The manpower for whole events was sufficient and efficient, this enables the whole event to run smoothly without much problem, and cause the whole event to be successful. Singapore Arts Festival should continue to maintain the manpower allocation as they did a great job.

The logistics used in Festival Village was relatively simple, maybe due to the budget as the whole event was cost-saving. However, the basic logistics is there but if it is to make the event look better, advance technology can helps. More effects from the performances and more sophisticated art works can be displayed, etc. 

 Services

The services provided by helpers in this event was marvellous, all of them were very friendly and accommodating. Singapore Arts Festival should continue to maintain these kind of enthusiastic individuals to help run the event as it will help to craft a more enjoyable and energetic atmosphere.

Advertising 

The advertisement of the event and the campaign should be further enhanced, they should spend more money and effort on this part as it is critical in attracting consumers to attend the events. It is not attractive enough to catch people’s attention on the banner to publicize and create the awareness to the nation.

Period and Duration

The event period only lasted 24 days, starting 13^th may to 5^th June. Perhaps it will be better if they extend the period so that more people are able to go more places and enjoy more performances and activities. Also, it will be better if they held the event during holiday periods, so that more consumers will attend the events. Most adults are busy working and students are also studying, and worst for polytechnics as it is held during the examination period. Thus, they might not have the time to attend the events. 

Future Challenges

This year Singapore Arts Festival had successfully came up with great variety of performances and activities to attract large number of consumers. The challenge for them for the following years to come would be sustaining their current standards and levels or performance. They need to think of new themes and ideas every year to keep their customers experience new and their performance fresh in order to continue to retain their customers and attract new ones.

However, statistics had shown that the attendance for 2011 was poor and is only 50% of their target. This might be mainly due to lack of a strong advertising campaign, the lack of attractiveness of the performance that are lined up as well. Another possibility is that the ticketed performances are too expensive thus many people think that it is not worth it to watch.

The venue can be another potential problem as they need to find a better and more accessible area to hold the event. Singapore is very small thus to hold a major event, it requires a spacious venue in order to host all their performances. If every year they held it at the same venue, it might not attract the consumers. Consumers seek for whole brand new experiences so that they will come back yearly.

The atmosphere of the event was not that great, and the mood of the nation was not hyped up. The participation of the event was generally poor thus failing to create the right atmosphere for the arts festival. This year event failure will create a bad reputation for the public and thus it will be challenging for them to attract them back to the event the following year. 

With the consistent and constant improvement of technologies, videos, pictures and information about art festival might be able to obtain from internet. This will decrease the participation of consumers as they would rather stay at home and watch it for free. They must ensure that they rule out the possibility of this factor happening in order to maximise the participation of the audience.


References

http://kentridgecommon.com/?p=12341

http://nurul09festevent.blogspot.com/2009/06/singapore-arts-festival.html?showComment=1308484396695#c3362834074813005469

http://www.singaporeartsfest.com/festival-village-kids-arts-village

http://artitute.com/2011/03/01/whats-up-with-singapore-art-fests-2011-campaign/

http://www.ifacca.org/national_agency_news/2010/06/16/singapore-arts-festival-2010-connections-between-y/

http://joyofevents.blogspot.com/2009/06/main-purpose-fof-singapore-arts.html

Booklet of Singapore Arts Festival 2011

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