Singapore Night Festival 2018 is here!
Yes! It’s that time of “Singapore summer” again. The Singapore Night Festival 2018 is on!
I’ve been looking forward to this since June, naturally, because I had a great time last year checking out the many avant-garde light art installations and performances.
With some degree of experience gained from 2017’s treks, I was confident I’d be able to cover more ground this year too. (I.E. more photos at more locations)
By the way, if you check the official homepage, you’d know the theme for this year is “Bring On The Night.” The subsequent write-up is a tad florid, if you ask me, equating the evening with imagination, danger, dreams, etc. But having experienced last year’s show, I think the descriptions aren’t too farfetched either.
I certainly had quite the adventure last night, exploring all the imaginative displays downtown.
Zone 1: National Museum of Singapore Vicinity
The festival covers a larger area this year, with the entire arts and heritage district, and the Dhoby Ghaut area, included as zones. After perusing the online brochure, though, I decided I’d still begin at the National Museum of Singapore i.e. Zone 1, double i.e. where I started last year. This, after all, is still the spiritual heart of the Singapore Night Festival.
Waited, loitered inside the NSM till it was appropriately dark, and …
Co-presented by PUB, i.e., the government water people, Aquatic Dream offers a glimpse at the dreamy world beneath the sea. I’d say the display does the job reasonably, with the effect best when waves of dry ice mist are released.
Zone 5: NAFA / National Design Centre Vicinity
Moving on, I made a beeline for the art projection at the Singapore Art Museum.
Titled Odyssey, this psychedelic journey is described as an “immersive journey through time and space, tricking visual and aural senses to bring you through multi-sensory environments.” Because of the crowds, however, as well as the massive projection pillars before the museum, I couldn’t capture everything despite having a super-wide lens. I thus opted to just focus on the main façade.
Moving on once more, I headed down Waterloo Street to NAFA Campus 1, where the next Singapore Night Festival 2018 Night Lights is located. While Odyssey is majestic and strident, the display here is serene and whimsical.
Next on the itinerary, the National Design Centre. This was a major location last year, so I expected “hardcore things” here. According to the map, two Night Lights are on display here too.
Okay. Time for a downer. The other Night Light at the National Design Centre was The Search by The Search Party. Unfortunately, and similar to last year’s Phosphene at the exact same spot, the queue was way too formidable.
I reached slightly after 8 pm and was told it would be a 40-minute wait! So as to have time for the rest of the zones, I decided to skip The Search. Argg. If I’m visiting the Night Festival again next year, I have to come up with a solution for this spot.
Down to Zone 2: Armenian Street Vicinity
After leaving the National Design Centre, I spent 90 minutes checking out various programmes and exhibitions, including SAM’s Imaginarium 2018, which isn’t listed as one of the programmes for the Night Fest.
Upon finally reaching Zone 2, I also had a much-needed drinks-break before joining the crowds at the Graffiti Alive display.
Because of the various promotional write-ups that I’ve read before heading down, I had the impression that Graffiti Alive was a star attraction of the festival. Well, I wouldn’t say it disappointed. But what definitely interested me more were the people striking very instagrammy poses in the alley. (LOL)
By the way, both ends of Graffiti Alley had Steampunk-like cameras for visitors to try. For the life of me, I couldn’t understand what on earth one was supposed to see with them. If you know, please enlighten me!
Singapore Night Festival 2018 Night Lights Zones 3 and 4
‘Right, this picture post is getting too long. Let me just share the other Night Lights pictures that I took.
In my next post, my favourite programme of Singapore Night Festival 2018!
The festival itself is ongoing till Aug 25, 2019. Note that most, if not all, performances, programmes, etc, will only happen on the weekends.
Singapore Night Festival 2019 Night Lights.
