Monday, June 22, 2009

4:19 PM

4:00 PM

The event that I selected for my Field Trip Assignment is Singapore Arts Festival.
Singapore Arts Festival can be compared to Infiorata- Flower Art Festivals in Italy as both festivals follow the same marketing strategy of engaging the audiences in it as well as to use the public more for its events. Many Italian towns hold Infiorata, flower art festivals, during May and June (look for posters announcing an Infiorata). Flower petals are used to create amazing works of art in the streets or in abbeys, a really beautiful sight. In some places, the Infiorata is a simple flower-petal design in front of the church. Larger Infiorata create several different panels, each with a different picture, but often centered on a theme. Similarly the Singapore Arts Festival holds some of its programmes outdoor like this year, The Singapore Street Festival. The Singapore Street Festival was held in various venues with different types of showcases contained it it such as dance, music and etc. Both events may seem very different, however they are very similar with each other as they are held annually every year to attract tourists and they also try to do something new every year its held.

The best practices of the Singapore Arts Festival would be Dream-Work and The Singapore Street Festival in my preference. Going to work every day is not a particularly exciting experience for every Singaporean, but what if we added some drama to it?Dream-Work, a joint-production by local company spell#7 and British art collective Bodies in Flight.

Marina Mandarin – new Festival partner – helped with accommodation for artistes this year. As a further show of support towards the Festival and as part of staff welfare, they also bought tickets for their employees to experience Dream-Work.

So on 9 June, the group of 12 from Marina Mandarin – including General Manager Richard Dusome – gathered bright and early at the Chinatown MRT station at 7.30 am. Dressed smartly in the company’s polo T-shirt and black pants, they followed the performer on her way to work and listened to the sounds and songs of the daily commute via personal receivers. A sound artist followed the group around to mix a combination of ‘live’ and pre-recorded sounds.
Thirty minutes later, the group reached Yueh Hai Ching Temple along Phillips Street. Lydia Hee (Human Resources) said, “There was a good flow and pace in the performance,” while Tatiana Beidar, an intern from Russia, liked the experimental and interactive nature of the production.
Dream-Work / Dream-Home, which is divided into two 30-minute parts, explore our daily journeys from the private to the public and vice-versa. It was performed from June 8-12.

The Singapore Street Festival was held in venues such as the Plaza Singapura and Vivocity. It was filled with dazzling dance performances and loud, heart-throbbing live local bands rocking the stage. This event was held for 3weeks continuously. I was there to catch the live-bands rock the stage. The crowd support was actually low in the beginning. However as the bands started playing, the crowd strength kept on increasing. More visitors whom were wandering around came to sit about in the amphitheatre to watch the bands perform. Many were cheering loud and supporting the local bands as can be seen in the pictures uploaded in the blog. The sound systems were very precise as they helped to boost the the energy of the performances every now and then.

The Premier Partners of the Singapore Arts Festival were Singapore Tourism Board, Shaw Foundation and Singapore Turf Club. The Official Partners are Channel 5, OKTO and Coca-Cola Light. Major sponsors were SMRT, Vivocity, PUB, Suntec Singapore, Raffles City, Wingtai Asia.

The main purpose of the festival is that, the Festival is characterised by a bold, progressive and innovative spirit, committed to commissioning new works by Singapore, Asian and international artists; investing in works that bridge disciplines, cultures, language and geographical boundaries; exploring, among others, contemporary issues related to history, memory, migration, and urban living; discovering emergent and promising artists; and encouraging regional and international artistic exchanges and collaborations. The Festival also features an extensive programme of free outdoor performances island-wide, bringing the arts to the doorsteps of Singaporeans.

Placing festival networking as an important process of cultural dialogue and festival collaborations, the Festival championed and co-founded the Association of Asian Performing Arts Festivals in 2004, and has since served as its chair and secretariat, overseeing a membership of 30 organisations in the Asia, Europe, America and Australasia.

The Singapore Arts Festival remains the largest singular event on Singapore's arts calendar, inviting artists from more than 20 countries, offering more than 400 activities and attracting up to 500,000 attendances – a 4-week infusion of performances and events that inspires and captures the public imagination of the city.

The amount tourism benefits received by host city Singapore because of the Singapore Arts Festival is that many tourists would especially come to Singapore just to view the Singapore Arts Festival as it is held in the early season of the year. At this point many tourists would be travelling as it is the spring season overseas. This is the ideal period of travel and thus the Singapore Arts Festival cannot be even well-placed than this time of the year. Moreover many business travellers will be travelling around for business conferences and all. For those which are held here, the business travellers can enjoy after their business meetings by catching some of the productions the Arts Festival holds.