Tons of Interactivity At This Year's i Light 2023

Hi Huneybees,

Phew! There's so much happening this June at Marina Bay and I'm playing octopus here trying to keep up with my articles and social media postings. I shared about GastroBeats in my previous post and this one's dedicated to i Light Singapore 2023 itself.

Curated to the theme of A New Wave this year, most of the artworks are anchored on the colour

blue which is omnipresent in nature’s blue spaces such as oceans and rivers, and often associated with emotions such as calmness and serenity, inspiring us to contribute to a more sustainable future as we interact with each installation.

If you are making plans to head down, here are some tips...

1) Not just for the weekends

This year's i Light is not only happening over weekends, so to beat the crowd, try making plans to check them out on weekdays instead. I bet it will save you more time trying to "erase" these people from your Instaworthy shots.

2) Get geared up

Spreading across more areas like South Beach and Millenia Walk, be sure to dress comfy and cool. Prepare your mini fans, and chilled drinks and get ready to clock those steps, or get geared up and rent a bicycle to enjoy these art pieces whilst enjoying the breeze along Marina Bay. 

3) Fringe Programmes

This year's iLight will see a lot of fringe events alongside the light installations, so take note of these dates if any catches your eyes...

● GastroBeats

Bayfront Event Space (4pm – 11pm daily)

As the Festival Village of i Light Singapore, GastroBeats offers a month-long celebration of good food, good music and good fun with can delicacies served up by 50 homegrown F&B vendors and live performances by talented local musicians from a variety of genres, such as 53A and Tabula.

*General admission to the Festival Village is free, while charges apply for selected activities. 

● Lightwave: Turning the Tide, presented by Alibaba Cloud

The Promontory at Marina Bay 

Weekdays: Sunday to Thursday – 7.30pm to 11pm (last experience at 10.40pm)

Weekends: Friday and Saturday – 7.30pm to 12am (last experience at 11.40pm)

Lightwave: Turning the Tide imagines a future where human exploits have damaged the world around us irrevocably. Transported to an underwater world, visitors are left to ponder: How have we come to this? Through three unfolding chapters of thought-provoking multi-sensorial light experiences, explore how our way of life has impacted nature, and be inspired to make a change and turn the tide.

*Admission tickets are priced at SGD5 each and can be purchased from Klook.

● Light Wash

Key buildings and bridges across Marina Bay precinct

7.30pm – 11pm daily (with extended hours to 12am on Fridays and Saturdays)

In line with the Festival’s colour theme for this edition, key buildings and bridges around the Bay will be lit up in a blue hue on Festival nights, complementing the light art installations and evoking a tranquil ambience.

● Guided Walking Tour by Let’s Go Tour Singapore

i Light Singapore festival grounds

3, 4, 10, 11, 17, 18, 24, 25 June (Saturdays and Sundays): 8pm to 9.30pm

On this specially curated walking tour conducted by Let’s Go Tour Singapore over four weekends, hear from experienced guides about this year’s Festival theme, A New Wave, as well as the creative ideas, stories and trivia behind the delightful artworks.

*Tickets for the guided tours are priced at SGD30 each and can be purchased from Let’s Go Tour Singapore here. 

● Rediscover Marina Bay Walking Tour

Marina Bay

7, 14, 21 June (Wednesdays): 5.30pm, 6pm, 6.30pm

Find out how the sea was transformed into a distinctive and sustainable district in the heart of our city. Discover what lies beneath Marina Bay to support sustainable living, and how urban planners sculpted a skyline that is distinctively Singapore. Get the story behind the centrepiece of Singapore’s transformation efforts by joining this special 90-minute walking tour led by URA volunteers. A

*Tickets for the guided tour are free and available on a first-come-first-served basis. Sign up here to reserve a spot.

4) Make a pledge

i Light i Pledge, presented by Alibaba Cloud

This year, the Festival is once again partnering susGain, a local social enterprise championing sustainability, on i Light i Pledge. Pledge your commitment to eco-conscious practices by making small but impactful changes in your daily lifestyles to cultivate sustainable habits.

● The Switch Off, Turn Up (SOTU) pledge calls for all to switch off non-essential lighting and turn up air-conditioning temperatures during and beyond the festival period. Since the Festival’s inception in 2010, SOTU has been a key component of i Light Singapore’s sustainability drive. The initiative has rallied many building owners, corporations and businesses around and beyond Marina Bay to

reduce their energy consumption in lighting and air-conditioning. This year, over 100 buildings and properties will be participating in the initiative (see list of participants here). The programme has also been extended to the public and schools for the first time this year.

● The Be a Zero Hero pledge encourages the public to adopt zero-waste habits such as reducing the use of single-use items and food waste. For each pledge submitted by participants up to the first 5,000 pledges, All Clear - a sustainability enterprise providing offshore and ocean clean-ups - will remove 100g of waste from Singapore waterways. As such, up to 500 kg of waste will be removed as an outcome of the pledge. 

For each pledge submitted online, a visual that is unique to each pledge will be generated using Alibaba Cloud’s AI technologies. The visuals can be viewed on i Light i Pledge’s website and as part of the last chapter at Lightwave: Turning the Tide. This initiative aims to demonstrate how a small step taken by an individual can contribute to a larger sustainability objective. Take part in the i Light i Pledge here and stand to win attractive prizes.

5) Key Highlights

This edition will see 22 artists from eight countries coming together to showcase 14 captivating light art installations. There's a few that caught my eye and I feel are definitely not to be missed...

● Tree Man by ENESS (Australia)

Location: Event Square

Encircling a sapling in his arms, Tree Man provides sanctuary for a young tree while carving out an inner sanctum for visitors. Falling into his arms feels so warm, so protected as though hugging a real-life BayMax, so comfy to just lean against it.

As one enters the arms of Tree Man, light switches across a spectrum of colours, and sparse melodies on top of a forest-inspired soundtrack are triggered, leaving one to wonder if we can ever find a balance between the digital and natural world. The act of nurturing and connecting with our environment is emphasised in these whimsical light sculptures. Emitting light with heads that are shaped like digital screens, the artwork invites reflection on humans’ insatiable preoccupation with devices, which could be detrimental to our circadian rhythms. 

● Glacier Dreams by Refik Anadol Studio (USA) and Julius Baer

Location: Façade of ArtScience Museum

Inspired by both the beauty and fragility of glaciers, Glacier Dreams is the result of a groundbreaking, long-term research project involving machine learning, environmental studies, and multi-sensory media art. Visual materials collated from publicly available data and institutional archives, together with glacier images personally collected by Refik Anadol in Iceland, are processed through machine learning algorithms and transformed into Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based multi-sensory narratives.

The artist, together with his Los Angeles-based team, hopes to raise awareness of climate change and rising sea levels through poetic glacier-themed experiences, and also contribute to the study of glaciers with their existing AI tools.

● Trumpet Flowers by Amigo & Amigo (Australia)

Location: Clifford Square

Inspired by gramophones, these super-sized flowers burst to life occasionally with a specially commissioned musical score by Otis Studio, accompanied by some of Sydney’s finest jazz musicians. Immerse yourself in this playful and fun musical garden using the interactive keys and try to activate to "whole band". I love how everyone comes together to create a beautiful piece of music, bring in your friends or simply work with the other visitors...

● Résonances by Louis-Philippe Rondeau in collaboration with ELEKTRA (Canada)

Location: Open Plaza, OUE Bayfront

Résonances is an interactive installation that embodies the inexorable passage of time. It seeks to reveal the limit between present and past. As an arch of light appears in darkness, a temporal portal emerges. When visitors cross this threshold, their image will be projected onto the adjacent wall and seem deployed in time through the slit-scan technique. In this visual metaphor, the past constantly takes over the present, and visitors will see their own image fade inexorably into the oblivion of white light. The artwork emphasises that all light is the manifestation of events that have already occurred; the twinkle we see in the night sky is but a bygone snapshot of the stars. Try walking through the portal in different poses, with different people and create your very own timeline artwork.

● Show III by Chen Jiawen, Lai Ling Ling Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (Singapore) and James Cook University  (Singapore)

Location: South Beach Main Entrance (next to JW Marriott Singapore South Beach drop-off point)

What does one usually think about in the shower? Let's take a quick one in public?

Inspired by a belief that showers are perfect settings for self-contemplation, Show III is an invitation to unwind outdoors by soaking in its calming blue light, with the company of a composed soundscape and virtual water droplets. The act of showering without water serves as a reminder for visitors to reflect on their water usage. It also aims to provide an alternative environment where one can be free of worries in the bustle of the city.

Ok, spoilers up to here, the rest is for you to experience and enjoy.

i Light Singapore 2023, presented by DBS, will be held from 1 to 25 June 2023, 7.30pm to 11.00pm daily with extended hours to 12.00am on Fridays and Saturdays. Admission is free, while charges apply for certain programmes. Visit https://www.ilightsingapore.gov.sg for more information.

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Christmas Wonderland 2016 Is Back At Gardens By The Bay This December

Hi Huneybees,

Christmas is gonna get brightly fun at Gardens by the Bay again as it transforms into Singapore's biggest yuletide playground for Christmas Wonderland 2016.

If you were there for the past 2 years, this 3rd edition is bigger and promises more fun events for the whole family to enjoy in this magical forest. Organised by Blue Sky Events and supported by the Singapore Tourism Board, Christmas Wonderland 2016 takes place from 2 December to 1 January 2017, from 3.30pm to 11pm daily.

Preparations are in the midst and you can definitely look forward to embark on a festive journey. Marvel at the Italian luminarie - Sculptures of Light illuminating the fairground, which has been expanded to 57,000sqm together with experiences for all ages, from wintry fun at the Ice Palace, to the local debut of the Hi-5 Funtastic House to a magical forest of Christmas trees. Visitors can also look forward to a bigger festive shopping and dining experience, more carnival games and curated festive performances for a celebration at home like no other.

There's tons to see and tons to do for friends and families to be merry this festive season. Here's a few highlights...

Step into a wonderland of festive sights and sounds

More regal luminarie – Sculptures of Light imported from Italy, the main attraction of Christmas Wonderland, will illuminate the fairground and have visitors mesmerised this year. Featuring a distinctive 17th and 18th century Baroque architectural style, some 240,000 multi-hued bulbs will light up the 67 hand-sculpted luminarie.

This year's Spalliera Castel del Monte in preparation...

The 19.7m tall Spalliera Castel del Monte is Southeast Asia’s highest and largest luminarie. Its design is largely inspired by its namesake – a 13th century castle and one of Italy’s most striking UNESCO site. Here, visitors can also look forward to experiencing ‘snow’ in the tropics with the daily Blizzard Time.

Making its debut at Christmas Wonderland near the Meadow Bridge is the enchanting Magical Forest. Santa’s Cottage awaits amongst a forest of pine trees adorned with festive baubles, where visitors can meet Santa and bring home a memorable photo.

Adding to the festive atmosphere, Christmas Wonderland also presents a complimentary showcase of yuletide parades, choral performances as well as curated singer-songwriter collaboration sessions amongst local artistes such as The Next Movement and Hidhir. Please refer to Annex 1 for the entertainment line-up.

‘Tis the season to play

Step into an upsized Ice Palace to enjoy ‘winter’ in our sunny island – skate at the 400sqm ice skating rink, enjoy an all-new 25m long Ice Slide or make a ‘snow’ angel at the 96sqm (double the size of last year's) Snow Playground.

The Hi-5 Funtastic House will make its Singapore debut at Christmas Wonderland is sure to delight little ones with a host of fun activities. Fans of the hit Australian musical group can have a time of their lives at the ‘Ready, Set, Bounce!’ bouncy castle, groove along to their favourite Hi-5 songs and ‘Style It Up’ for the camera in Hi-5 costumes and bring home a memento. Visitors are encouraged to pre-book their preferred sessions online to avoid disappointment.

Visitors can expect more carnival attractions at Christmas Wonderland this year. They can look forward to new carnival rides such as bumper cars, a mini ferris wheel and motorised Bug Car rides. Visitors can also take in the sights and sounds of the fairground at a more leisurely pace on the Christmas trains.

The ever popular carnival games return with more stalls including ‘Fishy Fishy’, ‘Lobster Pot’, ‘Can Toss’, ‘Ring Toss’ and ‘Hi Striker’ where participants stand to bring home Disney soft toys.

Shop, eat, drink and be merry

Visitors can enjoy an immersive dining experience at an all-new two-storey Glass House nestled amidst the Supertree Grove. Featuring a festive menu specially curated by Harry’s, diners can look forward to festive signature dishes while taking in beautiful views of the spectacular luminarie light sculptures within an air-conditioned indoor setting. The Glass House is also available for private events.

Explore the unique food, drink and shopping offerings at the European-style Festive Market featuring traditional wooden huts specially brought in from the United Kingdom. More details on the offerings at the Festive Market will be available at a later date.

Festive Promotions

Visitors are encouraged to plan ahead and secure their tickets early due to the event’s capacity limit. Christmas Wonderland has partnered VISA to offer 25% off the first 1,000 tickets daily. Cardholders will need to purchase their tickets using VISA Checkout and a valid promotional code.

Visitors with tickets to Christmas Wonderland can also enjoy $4 off Gardens by the Bay’s local resident Double Conservatories tickets, and experience the festive season in the crisp climate of the Flower Dome.

Admission tickets starts from S$4 and can only be purchased online at www.christmaswonderland.sg from 28 October 2016. Each paying adult can bring in up to three children under 0.9m free of charge. A child above 0.9m requires a ticket. Visitors must purchase their tickets prior to visiting the event, as tickets will not be available for sale on-site.

Additional charges for some attractions within the event grounds as well as to the conservatories apply. Selected capacity-controlled attractions will be available for pre-bookings online.

For more information on and to book tickets for Christmas Wonderland, visit www.christmaswonderland.sg.

 

Don’t forget to stay tuned to my blog / like my blog’s Facebook page / follow me @huney_84 on Twitter & Instagram  for the latest updates!

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