The 5th Night Festival

Was pretty stoked about the National Heritage Board's Night Festival held at the museums in the city and the grounds of Singapore Management University. But when I took a look at the calendar, the amount of food available at the stalls had increased (we were handed free bars of Kit Kat Chunky at the Nestle stall!), but the programmes seemed less exciting than last year's, even though there would be a total of 74 acts over two weekends.

While it was very nice to focus on local acts, I was disappointed that the international acts significantly decreased. Like only 10.8% of the performances were international. But as the friends put it, if this is one festival targeted for maximum outreach, then there's nothing to be disappointed about. We live and breathe local arts, theatre and music. It's our way of life since...we were toddlers. Many don't or can't, and if they make time for either weekend of the Night Festival, this is a great opportunity to see many acts in a night. It's also great for us to simply listen to wonderful bands, watch performances by various genres of artists (doing new things) again, and be very proud of how the scene has flourished. Wonderful art and arts will always be appreciated, regardless of boundaries. On the other hand, I wish I don't have to pay so much to watch a foreign performance in town, so the Night Festival has become one awesome way I could catch international performers strut their stuff.

I'd have loved to pop by both Fridays. But there could only be one. The rains stayed away and it was a cool night that wasn't as humid as it normally is. Made for pleasant walks between event venues. Aerial performances aplenty this year. Mildly curious about Fuerza Bruta's three shows, it was 'Corredoras' that was visually striking. That got my full attention. The friends and I gave the interiors of the museums a wide berth. Many people were making a beeline for that. We've seen the galleries; we came for the fringe events and extras. Strolled by cheerful buskers positioned around Singapore Art Museum and pinned a sticker to the one we liked most.

The party at the closed-off Armenian Street was in full swing. Drum beats punctuated the area. We danced on the street. Hurhurhur. When we looked at the paper-strewn roads later, we giggled. The pantang (superstitious) aunties would tsk at it and say "Choyyy! How can you do this? Especially on the 15th day of the Seventh Month?!"

The friends decided that dinner would be sorted out at the pop-up stalls of Old Chang Kee, Purple Mustard and Fat Boys. No sit-down dinner needed. Win. FUN! As always, bars serving cold beer located near the venues are much appreciated. A rather different feel from last year's festival (for me). But still nice. It was a happy sight to see crowds coming in to watch the shows, making the night come alive, quite literally. Before we knew it, we had been on our feet for four hours. Time for a shower and to slather aloe vera gel on the feet.