The annual Singapore Night Festival returned to the Bras Basah area again this year on 22nd, 23rd, 29th and 30th August. Ever since this event started, I have been attending this faithfully. Other than the first year (2011) which had wowed me with its outdoor tango performance, the mid-air acrobatics outside the National Museum and various light and art installations, my impression of this festival in subsequent years has been that of "promising too much and delivering not enough". Often, the promotional materials would seem like there's a lot to see but somehow, when you actually see the real thing, it can be rather disappointing.
Note that I did not actually go to all the venues as the festival's activities were stretched over a large area and I admit that I was quite tired after spending hours walking outside in the evening (which was actually still quite hot due to the number of people who also attended this festival). As such, my opinion will be limited to those exhibits I saw and the places I was at.
I attended the Night Festival on 23rd August (Saturday) and began my evening at the Peranakan Museum which I had never been to before. As you can see from the photo, there were many people here when I arrived at 7-plus in the evening and it was even more crowded when I entered the museum. If I remember correctly, Singapore citizens should have free entry to most of the museums these days but it's only on special event days like this when more people get encouraged to pay a visit to the museum. I usually go to the museums only if there is an exhibition which interests me (usually NMS, SAM or ArtScience Museum though). As part of the light installations for the festival, the Peranakan Museum's facade was also lighted up in a variety of colours which made it look rather different from usual.
After entering the museum, it was as if I was transported into the "Little Nyonya" world with all the fascinating exhibits and information about the Peranakans and their lifestyle. Mind you, I did not watch the "Little Nyonya" drama in its entirety but there were some scenes which I saw before so I did have a vague impression on the stuff featured in there. As such, I could identify some of the exhibits like the family ancestral hall, the dining table and kitchen as that of those which appeared in that drama. Frankly speaking, I didn't know much about the Peranakan way of life prior to this visit so it was an eye-opener to see the rich heritage and traditions passed on over generations. Even without a special activity like the Night Festival, I think this place is worth a visit, be it you are a local or tourist.
While I was in the museum, I could already hear some singing and music outside. Although it sounded a bit muffled, I could identify those songs as that of well-known local Malay songs which I heard of or learnt in school. After leaving the museum, I then realised that there was a street concert just opposite the Substation where the performers were singing Malay songs. I suppose the selection of songs was in line with the fact that the Peranakan Museum was located there. It was a very joyous atmosphere there as those drinking at Timbre or had bought drinks from the street vendors and people who had gone to the museum or had not gone in yet converged on the closed roads to sing and dance along with the performers. Be it whether they knew how to sing the songs (there were many foreigners at the concert), I think people were not too bothered about that and were simply enjoying the music. I didn't start watching from the start though but for the short period I was there, I enjoyed watching the performance.
As I made my way to the Armenian Church to see the light installations, I was headed in the wrong direction initially so had to retrace my steps. I was eagerly waiting to see the illuminated wedding dresses made from wires but the disappointing thing was that there were only two designs on display. No doubt that there was an array of colours illuminating the wire dresses and I do think that they look very nice in the dark surroundings of the church, I did wonder if it was worth walking back to the church when I was already reaching the National Museum. To make things worse, the glow-in-the-dark flower display wasn't as interesting as I thought it would be. By right, visitors should have been handed torch lights to shine on the flowers before music would be played but I wasn't handed a torch (other people weren't given the torches too even though there was a staff member there) so I failed to appreciate the "beauty" of this exhibit. Nonetheless, it was an interesting experience to enter the Armenian Church and see how it looked like.
Next up was walking towards the National Museum and the Divine Faces projection on the trees was the highlight along this path. As some of the trees' crowns had spaces in between, it would have been difficult to see the faces projected onto the trees unless you stood at specific places. It was then when I realised that the best vantage point would be just beside the projectors and that was where you get the best shots of the images. Honestly, I didn't recognise all the faces that were being projected on the trees. However, I do admit that some of the faces looked a bit creepier than the rest because of the lighting and the way the trees' crowns looked. This photo was one of the better shots I got which didn't look so creepy and the face could be seen in its entirety. Personally, I thought that this was one of the highlights of the Night Festival and liked the idea of doing light projections on trees other than the facades of buildings.
There was also a light installation where glow-in-the-dark stones were on the grass fields near to the stairs leading up to Fort Canning. You had to put the stones near the light machines before they would glow and you could place them on the floor to form words or pictures. However, there were too many people picking up the stones so I gave up on this and headed to the National Museum instead.
I had hoped to catch the outdoor harp performance at the National Museum but somehow was too late when I reached there. Actually, there were multiple performances per night but I was spending too much time on the earlier exhibits that I reached the venue just minutes before the next performance was about to start. Unfortunately, that slot didn't feature the outdoor harp performance. If I wanted to stay for the last performance which included the harp performance, it would have been near midnight by the time it started. As I had been walking around for more than 3 hours by then, I was more or less prepared to call it a day. I thought of watching the singing performance since I was already there but it took a while before it started and the music wasn't really my cup of tea so I headed towards SMU Green and the Art Museum for the last few exhibits which I wanted to see.
There were some light installations at SMU which didn't particularly wow me so I headed across the street to see the projection film on SAM's facade. Actually, they've been doing this for the past few years but this year's edition seemed rather week because the colour scheme was rather dull (mostly black and white) and the theme of the images didn't really stand out or was easily understandable. It probably also has to do with the fact that such outdoor facade projections are quite common in recent years that you really need something extraordinary to impress those watching it so I guess that's why I didn't like this at all. I was expecting something more interesting but too bad, this didn't live up to my expectations.
Likewise for the umbrellas installation at SOTA, it felt too bland as there were not many colours illuminating those umbrellas and there didn't seem to have been a special manner in how they were arranged. Maybe it's just me but I thought that the umbrellas were probably good for couples to take pictures with but didn't particularly stand out among the various exhibits during the Night Festival.
Although the evening began on a high note and sort of ended with a whimper, I guess I won't be giving up on the Night Festival just yet unless it truly disappoints me to a great extent. Besides, the satisfaction I got from the exhibits which I liked outweighed those which I didn't so overall, it wasn't a bad experience after all. However, one thing I note is that the crowds were getting bigger with every year (good for the organisers, performers and venues participating in the festival) but it can get a bit difficult to move around or appreciate the performances at ease. For example, there was this performance at SMU Green where so many people gathered around and those at the back could see nothing. It was then that I saw this guy who had a selfie stick recording the performance from the top (ingenious way of using the selfie stick) but too bad, I didn't have one with me to do that. It would have been better if it was performed at an area where more people could watch it at the same time. It was lucky that the day of my visit to the festival where the weather was fine (although rather hot due to the crowds). If I had gone on the following weekend when it was pouring, I doubt that I would have been able to enjoy the festival.
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