Nightcrawling at Singapore Night Festival

HOW do you throw a festival that’s been away for 2 solid years? By cramming into it every single concept and manoeuvre that’s been brewing all this while – that’s how. 

The Singapore Night Festival 2022 returns for 2 jam-packed weekends from Aug 19 to 27. And it looks like a smorgasbord of tenuously-related ideas, from projection mapping to food tours, from art installations to trishaw rides across a district.

There are jazz concerts, street parties, disco dancing, a tour of cocktail bars, a walking theatre show, a whodunit play where the perpetrator changes from night to night – well, you get the picture. 

The only thing connecting all these disparate activities is that they’re taking place at night in the Bras Basah-Bugis district. Trying to make sense of the programming of over 55 events taking place over 9 days may prove futile. Put on comfortable shoes and give in to the experience sprawled across several locations. 

David Chew, who takes on the role of festival director for the first time, says: ““The 2-year hiatus has been good for us, because we’ve been able to take stock of what we’ve done in the past 12 editions. Through public feedback, we’ve concluded that the one common thing that people love about the Singapore Night Festival is that it takes place in the Bras Basah-Bugis district, which has everything from history and tradition to contemporary culture.

“Hence we wanted this 13th edition to celebrate the richness of the district.”

The festival’s top draw, according to the organisers, is an immersive theatre performance taking place within a specially-erected recreation of the historical Cathay complex. Cathay Hotel: The Curse Of The Missing Red Shoe features iconic characters from the Cathay cinematic universe such as Mat Bond, Orang Minyak, Pontianak and Mambo Girl. Conceived by Justin Loke of Vertical Submarine and directed by Jeremiah Choy, it stars stage actors Rizman Putra, Rebekah Sangeetha Dorai, Andrew Marko and Munah Bagharib.

But although Cathay Hotel is the marquee attraction, the food and drinks tours will likely be the first to be oversubscribed: SG Night Fest Food Tour takes you to various food places within the district to sample their delights, while BBBooze O’Clock offers exclusive cocktails at several bars and restaurants including Analogue, Mama Diam, Hopscotch (Capitol), Vertigo 26 and GudSht.

If you’d like to burn those calories afterward, try a spot of dancing at the Discoloo Centre at the Waterloo Centre. Conceived by dance company P7:1SMA (pronounced “Prisma”), the activity celebrates disco fever in the 1970s with songs by the Bee Gees, Donna Summer and others. Flared bottoms and trippy tops are very welcome.

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If you still feel like partying afterwards, check out the Armenian Street Party where there’s everything from music to circus acts; Groovy Town @ SMU with its line-up of music and entertainment; or Jazz’in @ Capitol Singapore which takes you through different decades of jazz music.

Chew says: “Yes, we know it’s a lot of things. But when we started out over a decade ago, we were drawing only 60,000 people. By 2019, we were drawing around 600,000 visitors. That’s a tenfold increase. So we’re really trying to offer something for everyone now.”

Visit www.nightfestival.gov.sg for more information.