I am doing on the Singapore Street Festival 09. It was created in 2001 and officially launched in 2002, thus this year it marks the 8th edition. Singapore Street Festival is a social and community jointed project, aimed to create a platform for local talents in the performing arts, visual art forms, lifestyle trends (including fashion), entrepreneurship, technology, health and environment, where they will be able to express themselves in front of an audience.
Event Concept
SSF was created to provide a platform for Singapore youths to showcase their talents, youthfulness and creativity in performing arts.This year in SSF, it will host the Battle of the Year (BOTY) in the build up to the SHINE Festival 2009 which will be held later in the year in Singapore. BOTY is a hip hop culture event where the main emphasis is on Break-dancing along with other elements like rap, graffiti and Dj-ing which are integrated into the event. The winning act of BOTY will represent Singapore in BOTY Asia. During the course of the street festival, there is also street art, WOW!(a singing competition), Singapore Yo-yo championship, Asia Global BellyDance Competition and ‘To the Street’ Dance competition held in four different venues, Vivocity, Cineleisure Orchard, Scape Youth Park and Plaza Singapura with free admissions.
Similar Event
One event which happened in Ireland, Dublin, is the Dublin Dance Festival which is of similar type to SSF. The dancers expressed contemporary dance as a vital art form that utilises a range of approaches to frame current issues and global concerns. The festival aims to present a high quality international dance festival that promotes the best of contemporary choreography and develops artists and audiences in Ireland. The mission of the festival is to present a high quality international dance festival that promotes the best of contemporary choreography and develops artists and audiences in Ireland. Their vision is to present the best of international contemporary dance within a festival context. They aspire to promote excellent and innovative dance, reflect the diversity of dance and increase access to the art of dance. They believe that Ireland can be an international focal point for artistic exchange and collaboration. They feel they have a role in nurturing and supporting their choreographers compatriots in practical ways. Through the work of the Festival, they aspire to create increased opportunities for audiences to experience and be inspired by the non-verbal and universal emotions that can be uniquely expressed by choreographers.
The festival was inaugurated in 2002 and formerly known as International Dance Festival Ireland, it has become the premier dance event on the Irish arts calendar. In 2002, the Festival was established under by Founder and Artistic Director Catherine Nunes to pioneer the presentation in Dublin of the best contemporary dance and to establish a dedicated audience for the art form. The first festival was set out to make a statement by presenting the hugely influential Merce Cunningham Dance Company as the festival’s debut performance. Following the success of the first festival, the 2004 and 2006 festivals offered equally exciting programmes, featuring a range of international work from such notable artists as Mark Morris, Alain Platel, Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker and Jerome Bel, among many others..2009 sees the 5th edition of the festival, and the first time it has run two years in succession as an annual event. The fifth edition featured 38 performances by 18 artists/companies from 9 countries over 15 days in several Dublin city venues. DDF 2009 took place from May 8-23 and featured a breadth of international artists, many of whom are exploring cultural identity and all of whom represent the nomadic lifestyle and global reach of contemporary dance. All these information were taken from the festival’s official website.
The 8 ‘P’s
The product in these two events is the quality of the dance that was being offered, with SSF showcasing Singapore’s promising dancers while DDF mirrored life through ground-breaking dance moves. Dance is a sport and art form that generally refers to movement of the body, usually rhythmic and to the music in the background, used as a form of expression, social interaction, nonverbal communication or presented for a spiritual or performance purpose. Definitions of dance are dependent on social, cultural, aesthetic, artistic and moral constraints. So many people have different perspective and take on dance. Dance can be participatory, social, ceremonial, competitive, erotic, embody or express ideas, emotions or tell a story. No one can be sure what kind of dance is in fashion or which is not. Dance movements may be without significance in them or have a gestural vocabulary/symbolic meaning. Many people down the years have evolved dance, like in the 80’s, Michael Jackson rocked the world with his famous Moon Walk and many other signature moves. Dance can be used to get a message across, be it political, social or private. SSF offered free-to-see performances while DDF charge for some shows as they are held in theatres or concert halls where rental is applicable thus entrance fees have to be charged to reduce the cost of staging the festival. SSF has different genre of art performances, like belly dancing, street dance, Yo-Yo and singing competition, while DDF invited artists from different background, culture and practices to perform, ranging from Australia and Canada to Romania and Czech Republic. One of the highlight of DDF will be the Headphone Disco, where participants will wear headphones, listen to their own music and dance which is fast gaining popularity in the world. Thus in this area, both festivals are the same
SSF events are held in public places like Amphitheatre in Vivocity and Scape Youth Park near Somerset MRT station. These are places where it is accessible to much of the public where public transports like buses and trains are easily available. By having the stages set in malls, it enables the audiences to utilise the amenities in the mall, like toilet, F&B outlets etc. For example, before during or after the events, the audience can either catch a movie, chill out or slack in the malls. The convenience brought about by all these will also act as added pull factor for them to turn up at the events. DDF is also located in the city, near to parking spaces, the train service and streets of shops. After the shows, they can enjoy a drink or two in town with friends and family, if they decides to stay in town for the festival, hotels are also available in the city. Both festivals are located in the city, where it is always buzzing with people. While SSF events are held in open areas, DDF have events that are held in enclosed areas, such as a concert or theatre hall.
SSF is supported by National Arts Council and National Youth Council where they aim to promote arts among the youth. Youth are always a creative bunch of people and a interesting stage in the life cycle as it is during this stage where youth gets to meet more people and experience with new things brought about by the freedom offered by their parents as some deem youth as old and capable enough to look after themselves. While DDF is supported and funded by The Arts Council, which is the national agency for funding, developing and promoting the arts in Ireland. These festival and events can also bring the people together as the differences between the Catholics and Protestants in Ireland are well documented. With both events supported by government agencies, not much difference can be found in this area.
Communication/Promotion for SSF includes having billboards and posters put up in the participating shopping malls like Plaza Singapura, Cineleisure Orchard and Vivocity. Brochures were also distributed, containing information like programme schedules, dancers bios, prizes etc. Websites are set up for both events, showing the history, missions and goals and both events are also reported in the local newspapers, reviewing the performances, thus provided the event more exposure to the public, if they did not know these events existed. Members of the public can also get to know about these festivals and events through the word of mouth, as we being SINGAPOREAN, words spread very easily, be it being good or bad. Both festivals are marketed in the same manner except they emphasize on different unique selling point of their festival to attract the crowd.
As SSF shows are free of charge, they do not have tickets to sell. DDF set up their own ticket office to sell tickets for their shows. These events are stand alone highlights where they did not incorporate with other events. DDF do have memberships whereby members can enjoy best seats in the house, complimentary tickets and discounts by being a Festival Friend.
Programming of SSF is such that events are only held during the weekend, which allows more audiences to turn up as schools are now all operating in five days work week. Normally adults also get one of their week ends off. Thus many will be keener about these events, plus they are happening in town or the largest shopping mall in Singapore. Even if many of the audience main motives were shopping and not there for the event itself, most of them decided to have a second look after passing by the performing venues in/near the shopping malls as observed by me when I was at Vivocity during the Semi-Finals of ‘To the Street’ Dance Competition. DDF held events in Abbey Theatre, Project Arts Centre & DanceHouse, with some happening on the same day at same venues, so it made life easier for people who wanted to watch a series of performances on the same day. DDF is also staged during the closing term of the school academic year, where exams are taking place; therefore the targeted audience are not the primary/post-primary students. The programming of SSF is more convenient for the masses as they are held on weekends, over a period of time. While DDF has some event happening each day over a period of time.
SSF invited guest judges from overseas to select the winning act to represent Singapore in BOTY Asia. Guest performers were also invited to stage performances during breaks to provide entertainment for the audience while the judges were tallying the scores. From my observations, not many volunteers were employed. As many of the helpers are either friends or relatives of the participants. The audience are also mostly made up of their friends or relatives. DDF brought in different artists from all over the world for a common purpose which was to express dance in different forms, presenting dance moves by thinking out of the box and to reflect life in a different manner not seen in our daily lives. Both events invited guests from overseas, thus bringing a different point of view into the context.
Entrance to SSF events are free while Festival Friend can enjoy discounts or free tickets for the shows presented by DDF. Early birds discounts are also available if they book tickets online 2 months before DDF. Public can sign up to be a Festival Friend by getting forms online or through the ticket offices. I personally feel free entrance is a better way to bring in the crowd if you are presenting lesser known artists, as they received little publicity before the events, not many would pay to see them perform.
Stakeholders
The stakeholders will be the host, participants, media, the government agencies, private companies and the public. The hosts or organisers of the event have to plan every part and detail to perfection to ensure a smooth and successful event. All these require months or even years of careful planning, coordination and co-operation from all parties involved. By staging a successful event, they can attract more sponsors to sponsor their event or festival, gain more positive publicity and become a well known event throughout the world. If people from all around the world travel to your city to catch a glimpse of your event or festival, you know you are doing really well.
Participants who enter these events or competition can either make or break their performing careers. As most of them perform as a form of hobby, and not as a full time job where they will be able to support themselves. They hold full time jobs while practising their performances or act thus the amount of effort put in by these people cannot go unnoticed. During events like these, they stand a chance to win attractive prizes and hope some talent scouts out there notice their potential and sign them up. Some might go on to become world class artists or performers, who earns a lot of money and become famous, many will wake up in their bed the next day, preparing to head off work, continue with their daily lives. Though not all performers who participate in these events hope to get famous as they might be performing for the passion of art, just for the fun of it, or even to gain some experience performing in front of a crowd. Dancers invited by DDF are paid and they did not turn at DDF just for the money, but to also express themselves and their thoughts, exchange and learn ideas with other dancers and to show the public the art of dancing.
Media can help to publicise the events by having special reports of the event of festival printed out in newspapers, getting interviews with the participants and feature them on covers of their magazines. They can either help the events by giving good publicity or destroy the event’s image by focusing on their flaws and negative publicity. Negative publicity can totally tarnish the event’s or festival’s future as while all the wrong publicity going around, people will shun it and without the audience or crowd, the event or festival cannot go on.
The government agencies are involved because of a common purpose, to promote something in the host country. In this case, the Art Councils are promoting more awareness about art in the country or even specifically at the youths, help to give more exposure to the local artists and help the hosts to overcome barriers when organising events be it funding or logistics. By having government agencies that support your event or festival, many licensing rights can be easily resolved. This will increase the chances of the event of festival happening.The public are at the receiving end of these events as venues will be taken up to hold these events. The public are the ones who attend, support or criticize the events. Some of their daily lives will be affected as a result of holding these events like public transport will be more crowded due to the influx of people heading to a certain destination, be it in Singapore or Dublin.
I feel that the private companies like managing companies of Vivocity and Cineleisure brought the event to their shopping malls for a purpose, which is to earn profit. With the help of these events, they hope to pull in more crowds to their mall, thus increasing their revenue as the crowd will most likely spend on F&B or entertainment in the malls. Private companies are also employed to help market and promote the events, while theatres hope through these events; they will have more gate receipts as more people will know about these venues.
The public are at the receiving end of these events as venues and spaces will be taken up to hold these events. The public are the ones who attend, support or criticize the events. Some of their daily lives will be affected as a result of holding these events like public transport will be more crowded due to the influx of people heading to a certain destination, be it in Singapore or Dublin. So if the public are not taken into consideration while planning and staging the event or festival, the public might boycott, creating trouble or hinder the progress of the event. So it is very important to take into consideration the welfare of the public or the host city or country.
Recap
The objective of SSF is to provide a platform for Singapore youths to showcase their talents and potential, be it dancing, yo-yo, singing or Dj-ing. As many local talents have not been given the chance to perform or to be exposed to the various forms of performing skills, thus the young and restless in Singapore require events and activities to help occupy them, and more crucially, to nurture their creative and innovative minds. The main focus of SSF is its unwavering allegiance to a shifting melee of beliefs: internationalism, multiculturalism, peace, and experimentation with freedom, love, and with a great attitude, as stated on the official website.
Tourism Benefits
SSF is a local event which aim to help local talents, thus not much tourism benefits were received by Singapore as a result of hosting this event. As guest judges were brought in from overseas, many of their loyal fans will come down to Singapore to catch them live, in the process creating minimal tourism income. As SSF is a build up to SHINE festival, more tourism benefits will be felt when the event kick starts on 29 July at D’Marquee Downtown East. It might stimulate the economy as the participants may come in fancy costumes, or dressed up to impress the judges and audience alike, in the process kick starting a trend in fashion where many people will flock to buy the same clothes or accessories to look just as cool as them. Some tourists who came into Singapore to attend other festival of event like the Beer Festival Asia, Audi Fashion Show or WorldWide festival might stay for a longer period of time if they wish to get to know Singapore a tad better. Thus they might wish to attend this event where they can check out the standard of the local performers, in the process spending more money during their stay.
Conclusion
This event do provide a platform for the local talents and provide some much needed exposure to the public. The idea of not charging fees for admission to the events were also well thought of. From my observation on my trip, I noticed there was quite a strong crowd in the amphitheatre at Vivocity, some 400 turned up at the event. But many chose to leave after awhile as the level of performance was still not there yet, and after the performances, the judges did not comment on them, their comment could have help the participants improved on their dance. So I feel this is one area where the organisers can touch on. The schedule for these performances day are also quite packed, with it starting in the noon and ends only at night. Maybe they can increase another performance day, which could be a Friday, so they schedules will not be that packed as the crowd might get restless after sitting in for awhile. The festival can also include events like skate-boarding, roller blade and bicycle competitions as they do fit into the ‘Street’ theme.
The End.
Some of the pictures taken at Vivocity during the Semi-Finals of "To the Street" Dance Competition
Credits
www.singaporestreetfestival.com
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dance
