Singapore Night Festival 2012

Hello Singapore!  I'm finally back after spending 4 years in the US at college, so it's time to re-discover my hometown :).

I have nothing to do after work/on weekends, and my friends and I would just sit around and complain that Singapore is boring.  So we went to find some adventure.  Here goes:

First up:  NIGHT FESTIVAL 2012

Held on August 24, 25, 31 and September 1, the annual Night Festival organized by the National Heritage Board was a carnival of colours, lights, art and music.  The whole Bras Basah area was turned into a performance ground for acts such as Fuerzabruta and Home Made, while the Singapore Art Museum and National Museum of Singapore housed various interactive art installations.

We came geared up for the festive atmosphere with our own glowing necklaces called "Fairy Berries"!  Mine's not lighted up in the picture because they blink on and off, and getting everyone's on at the same time was quite a task (>_<)".

We first caught Fuerzabruta: Corredoras, where acrobats "ran" horizontally across a curtain of foil, to almost tribal music.  I'm not much of a music or performing arts person, but even if I didn't take away any deep message from this, it was visually stunning and entertaining.

This was supposed to have been followed by Fuerzabruta: Mylar, performed on a transparent platform suspended above the audience, where nymph-like dancers frolick in a pool of water on the platform, creating a shimmery and mesmerizing lighting effect.  However it was delayed by more than half an hour, during which a local band Shelves did a few numbers.  Not to diss local talent, but they were largely off-tune and off-pitch, and the audience heaved a great sigh of relief when they finally left the stage.  Not wanting to endure more loud, off-key blaring, we escaped to SAM and SAM 8Q to check out the various light displays:

 The gorgeous facade of SAM.  The light show was accompanied by low, humming, rather zen music, but because my digicam was not designed for such bass, I shall not post a video with the torturous sound quality.

Distorted Forest's sort-of shadow puppets!  It was one of the more eye-catching displays I've seen, without being flashy.  The lights move on tracks, giving the sculptures a swaying, organic feel.

Inside the chapel with yet another light installation, Temple of Hope: Forest of Eyes.  It was gorgeous, intricately-cut, and disturbingly philosophical, with images of people having their innards pulled out.  But much of the philosophy was lost on me due to (perhaps deliberately) very ungrammatical phrases.  Example below.

I found that most of them made more sense when spoken with a strong Singlish accent.

EYEBALLZ!!  The front of SAM 8Q, which housed the more interactive installations.

5QU1D was the highlight of my night.  No one could understand why I was so enthused by this hulk of plastic lighted up in psychedelic colours.  Apparently it's supposed to be more colorful when it has more friends, but the room was packed so maybe the issue was moot.

Grow a Garden in the Dark was crazy awesome, because black lights and glowing origami can be nothing but awesome.  There was a booth in the room next door where you could fold your own origami and add to the forest if you wanted!

Deanna puts her vocal chords to the test at the Reactive Wall, or the Scream-meter, as I shall hereby call it.  She was preceded and proceeded by little 4-year-olds with more lung capacity than a stadium of football fans, so suffice to say her results on the wall were mediocre.

We returned to the SMU Green just in time to catch the last performance of Mylar, which was initially a bit of a head-scratcher, but eventually morphed into a rather spectacular display of lights, water, and the human form.  Part of the dance featured scantily-dressed girls just sort of writhing around in the water in an almost erotic way... I know it's art, and I'm fine with any amount of nudity and sexual expression so long as there's a purpose/statement to it, but this one kind of didn't.  The rest was much more fun and whimsical, starting off with a girl walking around the large platform, and having the pool of water follow her around as she danced.  This was interspersed with fellow performers diving across the pool like dolphins to create a fast-paced and dynamic light show.

We ended off at the National Museum of Singapore which featured Scaling the Dome, a fun perspective chalk drawing that everyone lined up to take pictures on.  Someone looks a little too happy to be falling off the top of a building (^_^)".

Overall a very fun way to spend a Saturday night!  Especially when interspersed with lots of bubble tea, and ending with a prata supper at Serangoon Gardens.  The Night Festival has been going on since 2008, but that was the year I left for college, so this is my first time catching it.  Definitely worth a revisit in future years.

Next week:  A visit to the HortPark!