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Field Trip Reflection Journal: Singapore Arts Festival

1. Introduction

The Singapore Arts Festival is characterised by a progressive and innovative spirit, committed to commissioning new works by principally Singapore and Asian artists, investing in works that bridges 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.

The two events that I attended during this year festival weres the opening celebrations of the Festival which featured Water Fools from France and the closing celebrations at Bedok Reservoir presenting The Lunatics from The Netherlands.

2. National Arts Council, Singapore

The National Arts Council was set up as a statutory board in 1991 to spearhead the development of arts in Singapore. Its mission is to nurture the arts and make it an integral part of people’s lives in Singapore. Anchored on the twin strategies of excellence and engagement in the arts, the Council aims to build a vibrant arts sector by creating a conducive environment where the arts is accessible to all and artistic talents have the necessary resources and capabilities to excel and achieve sustainability in the long term.

Vision: To develop Singapore as a distinctive global city for the arts.Mission: To nurture the arts and make it an integral part of the lives of the people of Singapore.

3. Role of event to the organiser

In line with its mission, the Festival is one of National Arts Council’s projects to promote arts and culture in Singapore. With all the different categories of arts related events available during the period of 4 weeks, the public is able to witness and experience the different events.

4. Event stakeholders

The stakeholders of Singapore Arts Festival are mainly the government, media, sponsors, event partners, event participants, as well as the local communities and tourists.

National Arts Council of Singapore (NAC), a statutory board, is the stakeholder classified under government. News of Singapore Arts Festival and its programmes can be easily found on most local newspapers and magazines such as The Straits Times and 8 Days. Selective coverage of the 4 weeks event can also be seen on local news channels like Channel News Asia and Mediacorp’s Channel 5 and 8 News. That makes the media one of the stakeholders.

Yahoo! Singapore (Official Online Media) as well as Mediacorp TV12 Arts Central (Official TV Station) and Mediacorp Radio Gold 90.5FM (Official Radio Station) are all official sponsors of Singapore Arts Festival. Major sponsors include Hong Leong Foundation, Lee Foundation, Raffles City Shopping Centre and Mediacorp Radio LUSH 99.5FM (Supporting Radio Station). Japanese Chamber of Commerce, Singapore, Suntec Singapore International Convention & Exhibition Centre, and Vitagen Less Sugar complete the sponsors list.

PUB, Singapore Turf Club, and Singapore Tourism Board are premier partners of the Festival whereas Embassy of the Kingdom of Spain and Esplanade – Theatres On The Bay are examples of the Festival supporters and venue partners respectively.

Event participants such as the performing artists and the local communities and tourists are all stakeholders of the Festival and play a crucial role in the success of the event as well.

5. Target market of event

The target market of Singapore Arts Festival is mainly anyone who is interested in expression of arts and cultural regardless of their age, language, religion and race. This event is also a destination for the special interest tourists.

Target market age range starts all the way from a 3 years old child to the retirees. Different programmes and activities are catered and available to the different age group. For example, there is a Kidsfest which has theatre shows and workshops such as Choral Speaking and Hip Hop City Beat Dance and etc catered to the children needs during the period of the Singapore Arts Festival.

Other programmes and performance categories such as Dance, Music, Theatre, Festival Spectacular, Visual Arts, Flipside, Singapore Street Festival, Asian Showcase, Arts on the Move, and Community Arts cater to the other age group and people with different aspects of art. For example, Asian Showcase has shows like the Cantonese Opera Showcase for the older generation while the Singapore Street Festival captures attention of youths.

The Festival also brings arts into the local community with Community Arts and Arts On The Move with aims to increase the understanding of art within the community.

6. Marketing strategies of event organiser

NAC’s effort for marketing the event is very commendable. Firstly, months before the Festival starts, publicity efforts and advertisements have already been going around, creating awareness among the locals as well as tourists. The website of the Festival was also created beforehand and contains all relevant information from performance to ticketing in order for interested parties to gather information on the event through the internet. Internet users are also able to sign up as members of the Arts Fest Club through the Singapore Arts Festival homepage and receive updates and the latest news of the Festival through email or SMS for Singaporeans.

Secondly, collaterals such as postcards, brochures, flyers, and pamphlets of the various programmes of Singapore Arts Festival are readily available at all SISTIC outlets as well as in various museums and libraries. Anyone can just walk past any of these places and instantly pick up a postcard or brochure just to stimulate their interest in the event after reading it. Other than the handy collaterals, street lamps along the city area are also hung with the Singapore Arts Festival banners.

Thirdly, in collaboration with SISTIC and several membership cards holders, discounts are given to those membership cards holders as well as early birds when they purchase tickets for paid shows. This way, tickets are sold easily with the promotion.

Lastly, the media is the most effective tool to market the event. Thus, news of the Festival is largely covered by the media due to its newsworthiness. Articles of various selected performance and artists can be found in newspaper such as TODAY and The Straits Times. Other than that, the opening of the Singapore Arts Festival featuring Water Fools at Boat Quay received great media coverage from local news channels and radio stations. In addition, the closing ceremony presenting The Lunatics at Bedok Reservoir from 20-22 June was also covered in Mediacorp TV Channel 8 News.

In conclusion, NAC employed good marketing strategies to make the Festival a success.

7. Rating of the organisation of the event

First and foremost, starting with the homepage of Singapore Arts Festival, it is easy to navigate and user friendly with all the activities and programmes classified and categorised nicely. Visitors are able to choose whatever they want to see by clicking accordingly to the different categories. The arrangement of the webpage is also friendly in terms or design and make reading easier to the eyes.

Next, for the two performances which I attended during Singapore Arts Festival, the opening ceremony featuring Water Fools and the closing celebrations featuring The Lunatics, both are carried out without any hiccups. There were massive crowds on both occasions but the human traffic was well controlled by the securities on duty together with the help of barriers and signage. The public safety was also priority as both performances were held on water. Event crews were present to ensure attendees’ safety during the performance.

There were also seats reserved for the VIPs, temporary toilets for the public, information booths, and event crews to give assistance.

For the closing celebrations at Bedok Reservoir, there were even free shuttle bus services to transport the public to and fro Bedok MRT station before and after the show. This eased the jams on public buses.

There weren’t many flaws that I could find except for the cleanliness of the venue after the performance. People seem to throw their empty bottles and unwanted brochures around.
Hence, I would give an 8/10 for the overall organisation of the event.

8. Potential of the event by the organiser to meet tourist demand

Product: Ticketed events of the Festival have to meet the needs and want of the tourist. When tourists come to Singapore, what they would want to see most is the local arts and culture. Hence, the Festival could bring in more local arts and culture items to perform on this stage. Souvenirs from the Festival could also be introduced.

Place: More events could be held and concentrated in tourist areas such as Clarke Quay and Orchard. Because of these areas popularity among tourists, events that are held there will be easier for the tourists to locate and thus attendance of tourists will increase.

Partnerships: Singapore Tourism Board (STB) and travel agencies can be partners of the Festival. They can work together with the organiser of the Festival to promote the event overseas and increase its credibility among tourists.

Price and Programming: It is vital that the programmes available within the event cater to the tourists’ demand. If it is a paid event, tourists would want to see or experience more for the price they pay. Thus, programmes have to be designed appropriately to meet the tourists’ demands. For example, is $100 worth it for a 30minutes performance?

People: It is common that tourists seek help and assistance at local event like Singapore Arts Festival. Hence, the organiser has to ensure that all staff and volunteers are properly trained to ensure tourists and other attendees receive the right hospitality and experience.

Packaging and Distribution: If the event is a ticketed one, distribution network is important. The event organiser has to ensure that the tourists will know where to purchase tickets for the event they are attending. In addition, other promotions can packaged together with the purchase of tickets.

9. How value of the event could be raised to be align with the tourism mission of Singapore

The value of the event can be raised by partnering with Singapore Tourism Board to increase the credibility and promotion of Singapore Arts Festival overseas. As Singapore wants to become a tourism hub as well as building its tourism sector into a key driver of economic growth for the country, raising the value of the event could see Singapore achieving that goal.

The value of the event could also be raised by inviting world class artistes and performers to perform at Singapore Arts Festival, extending the period of the Festival and make it an even bigger scale one compared to this year.

The Singapore Arts Festival this year attracted 600,000 people over four weeks. However, this year's attendance fell to 74.2 per cent from last year's 81.2 per cent.

"The Architecture of Silence", which had 45 dancers and 80 opera singers, was a sold-out hit at this year's Singapore Arts Festival. Getting such acts to Singapore is not cheap, but the National Arts Council managed to stage more performances this year compared to last year.

More performers this year does not mean that its scale increased from last year. Compared to Hong Kong’s and Edinburgh’s Arts Festival which has a budget of over $10 million each, Singapore has only a modest $7million.

Marketing strategies, programmes, budget, and attendance are all factors that can be looked into to increase the value of the event to meet the tourism mission of Singapore.

Appendices:

Publicity collaterals of Singapore Arts Festival

Postcards