Went last year, and managed to make it again this year for the Night Festival at the Singapore Museums. The inspiration for the theme this year was amusement parks, and so it was suitably called New World 2010.

Unfortunately, I forgot my camera that night, so have asked my dear friends to share their pictures. (Thank you, A! D, where are your pictures??) The plan was to grab a quick dinner at Raffles City before walking over for the festival.

Everyone was seriously strolling, even though we were keen to catch The Love Eterne screening at the National Museum.We eventually managed to make the later half. My first Chinese musical, I regret dawdling over dinner for I thought it was such a beautifully romantic (and tragic!) love story, told in such lovely singing voices.

The other thing that I loved about the screening was how old-school the vibe was. It was at the Bus Bay on level two of the museum, and everyone was sitting on the floor under the stars enjoying the open-air cinema. The film itself was shown via projector – how cool is that?

If you’ve never been to the Night Festival, be sure to make it a point to check it out next year. There’s something for everyone, really, and most of it is really accessible. What I like is that the exhibits are spread all over – the National Museum, the Peranakan Museum, SMU’s campus green, the Art Museum, the Substation…so if you get bored or restless, you can just move on to the next display.

There was this exhibit in the Substation Gallery called Breath-Taking; it was an installation that consisted of 200 abstract portraits displayed in individual ziplock bags that were then duct-taped to the walls. I found one with my Chinese last name, xie; apparently the point was to read, understand and relate to others.

I really enjoyed walking through SMU’s campus green (my alma mater!); it was alive with activity. Taxi Girls and Taxi Boys really brought a vibrancy to the place as the Jitterbugs Swingapore people tried to recreate the social dancing scene in the 1920-60s. There was muay Thai, rap, graffiti, acrobats, jugglers, balancing acts…

Our beautiful National Museum, all dressed up for the occasion. We missed Paraboles 2.0 though…

All in all, I enjoyed myself, although the night ended on a less than enjoyable note. After we’d crossed campus green to the Art Museum, we tried to get into the Abusement Park. That kind of ruined the night, as we were waiting in the courtyard for over an hour. It didnt help that it had started to rain, and that we missed Paraboles 2.0 as a result. I know the waiting was part of the exhibit (part of the ‘abuse’), but my personal humble opinion was that it was taken just a little too far.

Still, one badly received exhibit doesn not a disasterous festival make, and I look forward to next year’s, hopefully with more inspired acts!

Filed under: Uncategorized by jadeseah