What’s up for the Singapore River Festival this weekend

When the Singapore River Festival kicked off its inaugural run in October last year as part of the Golden Jubilee celebrations, Singapore was shrouded in a light haze. Yet, more than 100,000 people showed up for the event, which saw big acts from international and local performers alike, such as Spanish theatrical troupe La Fura dels Baus’s human net installation, where participating Singaporeans were suspended over the Singapore River.

The line-up is no less exciting this year. And organisers are expecting a bigger turn-out. “We are aiming for about a 25 per cent increase (in visitors) this year. The weather looks better, so we’re optimistic that the crowd will turn up to join in the revelry,” said Michelle Koh, executive director of Singapore River One (SRO), a not-for-profit company responsible for the management and promotion of the River Singapore precinct, which is organising the festival.

“We had a good festival last year. As the place-maker of the Singapore River, having an iconic marquee signature event would help visitors and people recognise and connect to the place. Hence, we felt the Singapore River Festival was a fitting event to bring back annually to the precinct to inject excitement, activity and festive revelry to showcase the lifestyle offerings along the Singapore River.”

Koh shared that this year’s theme River Connections was inspired by the fact that the Singapore River is both a literal and metaphorical connection for Singapore — “from bank to bank, quay to quay, people to people, past to present”, she explained, adding the event will play up this theme through heritage, arts, music, food and lifestyle offerings. That includes the first tightrope performance above the Singapore River by headline act Underclouds Cie where French husband and wife tightrope artists will perform a piece inspired by the river and the special connection between a couple.To evoke the past and celebrate Singapore’s heritage, there is The Barter Market at Boat Quay to mimic the way trading used to be done as part of the Circular Spectacular Street Carnival today; there is also an outdoor cinema experience happening tonight at Robertson Quay with a screening of 7 Letters.

Beyond such heritage events, the Singapore River Festival hopes to serve as a platform for “amazing homegrown artists”. For instance, Circular Road will be closed to cars for urban artist Samantha Lo — who goes by the moniker SKLO — to have a 180m canvas to etch out her largest “My Grandfather’s Road”, while musical group Flame of the Forest will perform.

Stakeholders located in the different quays are also involved in different ways this weekend. Robertson Quay’s iconic club Zouk — which will be shifting across the river to Clarke Quay soon — is having The Zouk Run this evening in anticipation of its upcoming big move. The 3km running route, which flags off and ends at the current location at Jiak Kim Street, promises to be dotted with “Zouk key experiences”.

Zouk’s head of marketing and events Sofie Chandra said: “With The Zouk Run, we really want to highlight this aspect and gather generations of past, present and future Zouk lovers as we move along to the new space at Clarke Quay.” Zouk received about 2,000 sign-ups for the run.Restaurants in the three quays are offering special discounts to entice visitors, from Italian dining stalwart Pasta Fresca Da Salvatore at Boat Quay offering 20 per cent off its pasta dish of homemade Italian sausage and mushroom in light sauce this weekend to burger joint Dojo giving a one-for-one deal for its Kaiju cheese mushroom burger.

The celebration of the quays does not just end this weekend. SRO says it is constantly looking at ways to improve the area and its offerings. It is currently working with the Urban Redevelopment Authority for the Boat Quay Refreshment Area Enhancement project, which started this June and is expected to be done by the first quarter of next year.

“For Boat Quay, we will possibly look at more street parties with no cars,” revealed Koh. “And we’ll continue to do place-making projects related to dining at Clarke Quay and Robertson Quay, taking into consideration each of the Quay’s personality. So stay tuned.”