Singapore Night Festival 2008 – week 2

Come one come all! Here’s another set of photos we took at the second weekend of the Night Fest. Long overdue, work’s been pretty busy – so no time to blog at work

We signed up for “Reform” by the Australian group PVI collective and we each got a handsome set of FM receiver. So basically it’s about reforming law-breakers in Singapore (the participants) – doesn’t matter how minuscule the law is. Two “agents” showed the right way to do things, and ticket those who don’t play by the rules and advices them on how to be good, law-abiding citizens of Singapore. Their misadventures was then broadcast through radio (into our receivers) while we blend into the surroundings and follow them around. So off we went…

“Sir, do you know that you can be fined for littering in Singapore”
The unsuspecting executive enjoying his Friday was caught off-guard by our agents in neon-green, ticketed, asked to pledge for not littering ever again, and got laughed by 30 people in headsets. It was dark so I couldn’t take any photos but after this episode, they ticketed a few jaywalkers and showed us how use the pedestrian crossing safely (it starts by holding the hands of the people next you you).

What you can do to avoid getting caught loitering: lift your left leg up, then down, then your right leg up, then down, left leg up, then down, right leg up, then down, up, down, up, down, up, down…
We also ticketed a few other people for more littering, loitering (one gentleman seemed genuinely afraid), sharing utensils (unhygienic), and illegal gathering (the group broke off before the agents managed to get them to say a pledge – apparently they’re fast learners)

The Singapore Art Museum, painted with light. The National Museum was also treated with light projections customised for each individual nook and cranny of the architecture. The patterns then changed every few minutes or so.

SAM, this time with its reflection on the SMU pond. This one’s my favorite.

In a different pattern. This was taken on our way back home. Initially we wanted to check out what’s happening at the Zouk Beatnik Picnic outdoor party thing but until almost midnight, the MC was till yapping out advertisements, the people were still not dancing (they just stood there and ogle at the DJ), and the girls were coming in droves, in the absolute no-no footwear for an outdoor party: stilettos. Hello? Lawn? Grass? Muddy? But I bet their heels did a great job ploughing the land over there.

Singapore Night Festival 2008 – Week 1

It’s Monday and my fingers are having the blues so I won’t be typing out much but I’ll just paste some photos we took at the first weekend of Night Fest. Enjoy!

ps: for those of you wondering, my camera is a compact Fujifilm F100fd. And I love it!

The National Museum of Singapore, note the dancing couple in the middle

Sailing ship and dancer suspended in the air from wires

Extreme piano playing

Part of the crowd and a line of local girls in gigantic skirts on wheels

Giant luminescent ball – can’t really see it here but there’s a dancer suspended in the centre of the sphere

The moon (I assume) and two ladies

Dancers suspended from some really pretty balloons

Another view of the balloons – personally the red one is my favorite

Classical-style faces projected onto a screen of fine mist from a sprinkler

Water dance, a bit like gymnastics with goldfish in a bowl

Fire dance, ladies in nighties with pyromaniac tendencies

Fire umbrella, patent pending – waiting for scientific proof that spinning fiery spokes will keep you dry

Singapore Night Festival

Date: 18 – 26 July 2008

Venue: National Museum, SMU lawn, and its vicinity

Time: at night

There’s gonna be some fun happening the next two weekends. Singapore is holding a Night Festival which includes performances spectacular (imported, of course) some outdoor Zouk-ing and a slew of other performances and installations.

The Italian aerial Performance, The Dancing Sky by Studi Festi, will be on 18 and 19 July at 9.00pm at the National Museum with a second performance at 11.30pm. It’s gonna involve suspended stuff and people flying around. There are also other performances around the venue.

The highlight on 25 and 26 July is the Zouk Beatnik Picnic outdoor party (do I hear PARTY? Yeah!!!!) A number of heritage-related events will be held in museums and and vicinity, and watch out for the light installation that will paint the facades of the National Museum and the Art Museum. They’re also going to screen (the John Travolta) Hairspray and Willy Wonka (the 1971 version) outdoors, under the huge banyan tree outside the National Museum.

And.. and.. they’re all FREE!!!! And the 5 museums in the civic district (Asian Civilisation, National, Peranakan, Art, Philatelic) will be open to the public until 2.00am on both weekends the 25th, and.. and.. it’s FREE admission from 6.00pm onwards! Now how cool is that?

I picked up a pamphlet with all the performance schedule but apparently they don’t have an online version of it. The National Museum website lists the programmes but the website isn’t really that friendly – but anyway it’s better than nothing, so if you wanna know more you can visit their website then click on the Night Festival link at the bottom of the page and then click on the respective dates to view the programme line-up.