Review of Teochew Festival Singapore 2016

Teochew Festival is back this year, literally with a bang. Since its inaugural edition two years ago, the organisers seemed to have gained some insight from the experience then and made several improvements to this year's edition.

If you've read my review of the 2014 version, these were the points which I highlighted as being lacklustre then:
- the lack of air-conditioning at certain parts of the small festival area
- the use of coupons which was a huge inconvenience and necessitated "spending exactly the same amount as the value of the coupons you bought"
- the festival being more like a trade fair rather than a cultural event

This time, the venue has been changed to the larger, posher and definitely more comfortable Sands Convention Centre. As such, despite the sweltering weather this afternoon, I could enjoy the event in cool comfort without having to sweat literally. Coupled with the fact that it was a weekday, the crowds were not as intimidating as they could be during a weekend.

With more space, the stalls and booths are spread out compared to when they were squeezed into that small tent two years ago. This allows the businesses and exhibitors to showcase more of their stuff without having that cluttered feel. And I do notice that the staff and shop owners seem more open to the idea of visitors taking photos of their booths, displays and merchandise which I suppose could be due to the prevalence of social media these days and any form of publicity would be welcome. As a visitor, I don't have to look over my shoulder and worry about being told to stop taking pictures so it is effectively a win-win situation.

As a result of the expansion of the event space, the food street is so much bigger now and I think there are more stalls this time, of which a number of them are rather famous names in the Chinese dining scene. Compared to last time when I had to stand to eat and squeeze in just to queue for my food, the experience this time was definitely more enjoyable.

The second issue about the coupons last time has been resolved with the advancement of new electronic payment methods such as Nets FlashPay. This is possibly why the Teochew Festival has chosen to use Nets as the default payment mode to eliminate the need to carry cash and the hassle of having to exchange for cash coupons like what was done in the last edition.

Note that there is a booth within the exhibition hall which sells a set of special edition NETS cards with designs of some famous Teochew operas on the front. To buy the whole set of 6 cards with no cash value in them, this would cost $50. On the poster shown on the left, the cards with the values indicated are those with cash already preloaded into them so you can buy them individually and use the value to purchase food and merchandise. If you happen to run out of cash in the NETS card, you can use the machines on site to top up accordingly.

With each entrance ticket, there is a discount voucher of 3 dollars included which can be used to offset against your purchases. To utilise this, you would have to surrender your entrance ticket to the cashier so if you would like to take a photo of your ticket, be sure to do so quickly before you start buying food or things.

Last but not least, the cultural aspect of the festival seems to have been greatly enhanced this time with a section devoted to showing how the Teochew ancestors came to Singapore and what kind of lives they led. The content is presented in both English and Chinese and substantiated with artefacts from the past to make the historical information easier to understand and relate to.

At the exit of the cultural gallery, there is a stall where a calligraphy master is writing couplets for the visitors on red paper. With the upcoming Lunar New Year in a month's time or so, the couplets would come in handy as decorations. It doesn't look like any purchase is needed to get the couplets so the queue seemed to be going on endlessly every time I walked by the stall.

At the main stage area, there is a wide range of performances and activities every day. While I was there, a Teochew opera performance was going on with the seating area fully occupied and many others standing by the sidelines watching intently. To help those who may not understand the language, there were Chinese subtitles flashed on the screen which helped the audience to understand the opera lines better. However, it would be even better if there were English translations shown together for the visitors who don't know Chinese or have a weak command of the language so that they can understand the meaning of the opera lines which tend to be in the traditional form of the language.

During a subsequent Teochew talk session, there were no subtitles though so it was more difficult to understand what the speaker was talking about.

As for the food selection on offer, there is a wider range this time and the large number of seats around makes it easier for the visitors to buy their food and find a seat. Teochew signature dishes such as braised duck, fishball noodles, fishball dumplings, orh nee, oyster omelette, bak kut teh, shuijingbao, chwee kueh and pig trotters from various famous restaurants can be found here. My only grouse is probably the higher-than-usual prices which I suppose should be due to the costs involved this time at a better venue and the scale of the event which has been upgraded. The saving grace is that the quality of the food I tried this time was better than the last edition so I didn't feel that bad about having to pay so much for the food.

With regard to the festival-related merchandise range, the items on offer such as the notebooks, umbrellas and cushions seem to be largely the same as the last edition's range so it was a bit disappointing not to see new stuff being developed and released to the market.Surprisingly, at the stall which sells traditional oil paper lanterns, there are some soaps and candles made in the shape of Teochew kueh as shown in the photo on the left which look quite nice and smell good so you may wish to check these out. Honestly, for this type of special-themed items, they tend to be priced slightly higher than the norm and not readily available in shops so it will be good if they can be purchased more easily e.g. via online and priced more competitively to attract more buyers.

On the whole, I think this year's festival is a marked improvement from the inaugural edition but that is not to say that it is perfect as yet. Hopefully, when the next edition comes along, there will be further enhancements to make it even better.