Better reception at this year’s SWF

SINGAPORE — This year’s edition of the Singapore Writers Festival (SWF) drew slightly more people to its events, said organisers in a press statement yesterday, adding that it “engaged a deeper audience base than last year”, along with having new commissions, fresh partnerships and a revamped concept that featured five festival “tracks”.

Over the festival period from Oct 30 to Nov 8, 19,700 members of the public participated in more than 310 events that featured 324 authors and personalities from Singapore and around the world. Last year saw 19,500 attendees for SWF.

While the numbers may not be a large increase, organisers were happy with the result because this year’s festival format had been tweaked. For one thing, new festival director Yeow Kai Chai developed a new festival concept with five “tracks” or categories: SWF Stage (which comprised marquee events), SWF Class (masterclasses and workshops), SWF3 (events for families), SWF Beyond (items that transcended language and genre) and SWF POP (year-long series of fun and surprising pop-up literary events).

“Many people, including first-time festival goers as well as Singaporean and international authors, have come up to me to say how much they enjoyed themselves and the diversity of the programmes,” said Yeow. “We hope to continue this new momentum into next year’s festival as well.”

Also, there was a 30 per cent rise in the number of tickets sold, while total revenue saw an 80 per cent jump when compared with 2014. It seemed that audiences were more willing to pay for a series of ticketed events this year compared with previous years.

This year’s ticketed offerings comprised six lectures, four performances and a brand new overnight programme, as well as 28 workshops and masterclasses (for adults and children). There also were 112 free events.

Last year’s ticketed events included five lectures, one performance and 12 workshops for adults. Children’s workshops were free.

Two of this year’s shows were sold out and a total of five shows saw more than 90 per cent in audience attendance.

First-time festival-goer and Filipino poet-essayist Lawrence Ypil said he had wanted to know more about Singapore writers. “I particularly enjoyed sessions which featured Singapore writers in conversation with international writers. Through this, I could get a sense of Singapore writers,” he said.

Melissa Wong, a repeat festival-goer, said: “I like that the festival is now on a much bigger scale than before. It’s really heartwarming to see more people being interested in the art of writing here in Singapore. I’ll definitely be coming back.”

According to organisers, preparations for next year’s instalment of the SWF are already underway. It is slated to run from Nov 4 to 13, 2016.