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.