The Singapore Arts Festival is a national arts festival celebrating local arts activity of Singapore’s diverse communities. Started in 1977, the Festival has being the ideal platform in the development of artistic and cultural life of Singapore. Not only has it exposed the people to the myriad wonders of arts appreciation, but unknowingly it has helped to transform the city’s landscape, a typical example would be the Esplanade.
Singapore Arts Festival remains the largest singular event in Singapore’s arts calendar. A festival of its kind, fueled by progressive and innovative spirit, an event that bridges all vocabulary in association with arts, exploring new and wild ideas while doing the contemporary works. A four week long event from 23 May to 22 June 2008, event calendar filled with programmes uniquely in its own kind but nonetheless artistically inclined, from free outdoor performances to ticketing programmes, catering to the various markets. It is no surprise that Singapore Arts Festival 2008 is a success again, with a turnout of 700 000 attendances.
Organizer of Singapore Arts Festival 2008 is the Singapore National Arts Council (NAC). Set up as a statutory board in September 1991, NAC is the driving force in the development of the arts in Singapore. This is justifiable just looking at its mission and 5 strategic thrusts to realize the vision of developing Singapore into a distinctive global city for the arts. Art is made accessible to everyone, artists and art groups having the necessary funds and resources to excel.
Always actively being engaged to bring arts exposure and appreciation to greater heights, Singapore Arts Festival has definitely made this a testimony a reality. The objective of Singapore Arts Festival and NAC are in line with each other, adding the credibility to the event itself and the organizer. Experimentation using the traditional and the contemporary, fusing them together into fresh and exciting forms of arts which NAC always try to do, this has being greatly achieved as what Singapore Arts Festival has shown. Through such hallmark events, the vision of what NAC wish to attain is visible to people who attended, which position itself better in the arts community. Not only that, it has marketed NAC itself well to overseas tourists, knowing that such spectacular event like Singapore Arts Festival was organized by them. NAC would be viewed otherwise as an active player in the arts industry and able to host and organize event that is unique in its own way, not just another arts council doing the normal things.
Stakeholders of the Singapore Arts Festival can be divided into many categories. Stakeholders could be companies related to the event like the sponsors and partnerships, the consumer which is the targeted audience, the government and within the organization itself. Such great event receive the support of many companies, be it in terms of merchandise being sponsored, media support or simply monetary gains. This event sees itself a long list of sponsors and partnerships, all of which are very well-known and reputable, e.g. Singapore Tourism Board (STB) and Mediacorp Radio. As the Singapore Arts Festival is targeted at the people and tourists, the interest of these parties plays a major part for it determines the kind of programmes installed. Event organized under a statutory board have its risk to be dealt with, for any minor happenings would draw an impact to the government. The staff within the organizing committee is a group people not to be missed out as they are the coordinators of the whole event.
Singapore Arts Festival has extensive programmes of free outdoor performances, but it does not simply mean the target market of such event is everyone living in Singapore. Indeed, the closing act of the Hydro Sapiens being held at Bedok Reservoir is hope to bring the programmes closer to heartlanders who wish to be a part of Singapore Arts Festival, just that it could be too far away or some personal constraints that forbids them to travel to town area. Another group of target audience would be tourists. STB took an active role in promoting the event at their informational booth. It is by no explanation that Singapore Arts Festival is also targeting at the artistically inclined people as their audience. Such event is a golden time to showcase our local talents to tourists and also foreign arts scene to the locals.
Being a very special event itself, the marketing strategies used is also not common like any other marketing effort. A mix of different marketing tools are used, combination of both traditional and interesting techniques. Brochures of the Singapore Arts Festival are placed at places where there is high traffic flow and where tourists are likely to visit, like the Esplanade and major shopping malls like Paragon. Roadside banners hoisted on the lampposts are targeted at those people who own a car, if they were to miss the posters and banners pasted on public transport. A very eye catchy and out of the norm way of marketing is to actually paste the marketing stickers onto drain covers. This has definitely attracted the attention of people passing by or merely waiting for the traffic light. It my be seen as inappropriate to paste such major event advertisements on drains but ultimately the attention it gets is greater than any ordinary poster, which is the objective of the marketing process.
It is by no doubt that Singapore Arts Festival 2008 has being a success, being able to draw such alarming number of people and sale of ticketed shows selling well. More people are attending shows organized by NAC, and this Singapore Arts Festival has make people discover a new realm of interest and are looking forward to more such festivals. On a scale of 10, I would rate NAC a score 8.8 for this Singapore Arts Festival. Reason for the high score is attributed to a number of factors, the number of people it attracted, the great marketing strategies it put in, the new exploration of arts form being tried out this year, the kind thought of bringing the act to heartland, the special selection of venue to conduct the event that meanwhile promote Singapore to tourists. It is evident that thorough considerations are taken by NAC to select or conduct the activities, bringing the most out of the place itself by making use of the facilities and promoting the place. A fall short of 1.2 score from full marks is because I believe how perfect and impeccable an event may seem to be, there will always be room for improvement, using the previous years as a benchmark for everything and how to raise it to the next level.
Possible improvements or ways to attract more people could be implemented for future Arts Festivals. More outdoor performances could be scheduled, to showcase more potential local talents. This performance could be held at shopping malls, not congregated at places related to arts like the Esplanade. In this way, different portfolio of audiences can be met. NAC could also work with overseas tourism board to help promote the Singapore Arts Festival, giving the people a good reason to come visit Singapore. Different marketing channels could be used to market the event, even the internet to reach out to overseas market.
The tourism mission of Singapore is “We develop and champion tourism, so as to build the sector into a key driver of economic growth for Singapore”. In order to increase tourism sector, the NAC must constantly organize events that will draw tourists here, to appreciate art and to generate ticket receipts from them. NAC developing a mix programmes that tourists will be unlikely to see elsewhere will entice them to come to Singapore if they are immensely interested in the particular show.
Images of the Singapore Arts Festival printed on drains
Pictures from the Opening Act. Water Fools
A short clip of Water Fools (opening act of Singapore Arts Festival)
Reference
Singapore Arts Festival Official Website: http://www.singaporeartsfest.com/
Singapore Tourism Board: http://app.stb.gov.sg/asp/index.asp
National Arts Council Singapore: http://www.nac.gov.sg/