It’s time for the kids to stay up late with good reason! Our favourite cultural festival is back with a great showcase of visual delights: The Singapore Night Festival in the Bras Basah Bugis precinct.
When night falls this August, you may find yourselves bumping into strange inanimate objects! Amazing artworks have been scattered around the Bras Basah precinct for the latest installment of the Singapore Night Festival.
Entitled, the “Bold and Beautiful” , the 2014 edition promises a line up that is strong and pleasing. There are Installations, Performances, Workshops, and Interactive Elements to delight parents and kids.
Installations
* Catch a majestic image of figures superimposed over the National Museum of Singapore in Divine Trees (Clement Briend),
* On the nature front, check out this beauty at the Singapore Art Museum in Spirits of Nature (Wecomeinpeace).
* Over at the Armenian Church, equip yourselves with flashlights as you wander about a mystical forest of light and sound in ALSOS* (Scenocosme).
* Kids will enjoy making shadows come alive in Light Up Ninja (The Lighting Detectives), where visitors create glow-in-the-dark paintings using fluorescent pens and paints.
* See how modern life and environmental conservation collide in Greenhouse Effect (Maro Avrabou and Dimitri Xenakis), where stationary cars parked at an SMU walkway along Bras Basah Road become “industrial gardens” full of plants and ferns of all shapes and sizes.
Performances
* Head down to a little corner beside SMU’s School of Information Systems for mesmerising art performance, Into The Starlight (Starlight Alchemy). Don’t miss this chance to twirl and play with their LED tools, like “poi” and “hoop”.
* For a few good laughs, catch a bunch of homegrown improvisational performers in Fat Kids Are Harder To Kidnap: Something Borrowed, Something New (How Drama) as they “speed-perform” their way through 31 plays in one hour.
* See living poetry in the performance by half-human, half-bird creatures called “follies” in Follies For E Birds (The Arts Fission Company) – this is interactive for children and adults and is supposed to highlight personal space (or lack thereof) and the results of rapid urban development.
* Learn more about Peranakan culture in The Peranakan Museum Variety Show (The Main Wayang Co.), and dance along to classic Baba Nyonya tunes.
Music
* William Close, a finalist in the seventh season of America’s Got Talent, will be in town to play a larger-than-life instrument, The Earth Harp, accompanied by homegrown vocalists, Sound Of Sirens, and Singapore’s drum group ZingO. Discover how architecture and music interact at the National Museum of Singapore.
* Listen to original compositions by local talent at HOMEMADE, which will feature bands like pop music band Lost Weekend and eccentric duo The Stoned Revivals.
* If you don’t mind loud and heavy, check out Tribal Gathering of Jaw Benders, which will bring together emerging and established indie, alternative, and hardcore bands like Caracal and The Observatory.
* Roving brass bands (Timbre Music) will add to the festival atmosphere by playing catchy jazz numbers around Armenian Street.
Workshops
* At the Tiger-Fighting Hero, Wu Song workshop (Paper Monkey Theatre), children and families will learn the art of puppetry and journey with Wu Song to meet a man-eating tiger.
* Make your very own personalised tote bag in the Daydream and Nightmares workshop (Silkscreen Printing) – there are only 25 participants for every two-hour session, so email [email protected] by Monday, 18 August to book a spot.
Shop & eat
* Situated on Cathay Green, the Festival Village is your answer snack requests from kids (and a beer or two for you). Scope out cool finds at the nearby flea market, or just enjoy a breezy live band performance and watch a film under a starry night sky.
Singapore Night Festival will be held on 22-23 August and 29-30 August 2014. Download the full Night Festival programme here.