Reflection

Overall, it was a great experience for me and I would want to attend the event again if there is any possibility that they will have it next year. I love art, so why would I not attend it again? Being involved in the event even though I was just a volunteer made me realise how diverse arts and culture is. It was a great way of immersing myself in living and breathing art. With that, I can also attest to the quality and being able to enjoy some of the performances. I was overwhelmed that more and more Singaporeans are participating in events like this where arts and culture activities are involved. In any ways, everyone would be able to enjoy such festival. Who says Art is only about the stale old artefacts and paintings? It is about being alive and you have the choice on how you can interact with it.

Comparisons & Unavailable Market

Changes made between SAF '11 and '12

I did not attend any of the SAF events in the past years and that was my first time. Therefore with little knowledge on the difference I was only able to do some research to compare. 

Firstly, the products were almost the same where programs like the Kids Arts Village are still implemented just with some changes in the type of activity involve. However there was one huge difference in the product and that there was no outdoor theatre in 2012, unlike in 2011. In 2011, there was this huge stage place at the field in a theatrical form with a show called ‘When A Gray Taiwanese Cow Stretched’ (Japan), opens the Festival. The layouts of the programs are more the olden days, like kampong style. Unlike in 2012, it is more modernised using tents as shelters.  Other than that, the main location of the overall event is still located at the Esplanade Park, thus still maintaining the convenience.  

Main stage of the outdoor theatre. Beautiful isn't it?

Picture taken from
  http://superadrianme.com/2011/05/13/singapore-arts-festival-2011-kicks-off-13-may-till-5-june-2011/

Most of the partnership also remains the same like Singapore Tourism Boars and OCBC which has been supporting the event for several years already. As for the place of distribution, SISTIC has always been the place to buy the ticketed performances. Similar packaging and promotional methods were used.

Unavailable Market

Although the event had provided a lot of fun and entertainment to the visitors as well as being a successful one, there were some areas that I believe could be improved. For instance, the festival did mention a lot about visitors from all ages are able to enjoy most of the programs there. They even have specific events for some niche group like the teenagers where there are music performances at night and for children there is the Kids Arts Village, adults can also be involve in any other programs there like theatres.

However, there were two groups of people that were the smallest in the event and they are the teenagers and elderly. Most of the adults could be found at the main stage area where the performance is, but looking at the audience, there were only about 20-30% of the visitors were teenagers. And I would say that those teenagers who were there were either the volunteers or the performers. Other than that, most of them were only hanging around at the flea. Where are the teenagers? Thinking that Esplanade is one of the well known areas where teenagers like to hang out, it was very surprising that they did not attend to such festivals.

In my opinion, there were sufficient advertisements going around this year but it was not enough to reach out to the teenagers. I, myself was not aware of the event that happened last year or maybe if I did, I would not have the interest to go to such place maybe because it is a “festival”. In Singapore context, it is very rare to see teenagers in festivals unlike those in other countries. Therefore, I feel that there is a need to increase the awareness of the event to reach out to them because I feel that the event can benefit them, just like it did to me. It would be feasible to advertise through teenage magazines or through media like televisions. Also, they can give out flyers to schools. That is the best and fastest way to reach out to them!

As for the elderly, there were very little programs involving the elderly and as such, there were minute number of them coming to the event. One way to increase the visitor ship is through having activities that were available in the past like playing traditional games or having old films and theatres. Even if SAF were to have something similar back then, maybe they can involve the elderly to be the actress or actor to play a part in the theatre. I am pretty sure that they will be jubilant to be part of the event and not just being a volunteer there giving out the festival guides. As to create the awareness to the elderly, posters can be put up at the community centres since the elderly often themselves there.

She was one of the elderly that was giving out the festival guides

With all these new suggestions, I believe that it will help to increase the awareness of the event as well as to increase the number of visitors that the event is targeting.

The Marketing Mix

Marketing events such as the Singapore Arts Festival need to imply the marketing mix to achieve the organisational goals. Marketing mix refers to a planned mix of the controllable elements of a product's marketing plan. There are in total of eight Ps and they are, Product, Place, Partnerships, Promotion (Communications), Programming, People, Packaging and Distribution and Price. However, I will elaborate only on Product, Place, Partnerships, Programming as well as Price.

Product:

A product is anything that can be offered to a market for attention, acquisition, use or consumption that might satisfy a want or a need.

The core product is what the buyer is really buying and that every product is a package of problem-solving services even though it is often intangible. The core product in this case is the entertainment that incorporates arts.

It is also necessary to include in the facilitating products where it must be present for the guest to use the core products. Some facilitating products available at the festival includes information and ticketing booth, food and beverage(F&B) outlet like the Cold Stone Creamery, other facilities like the stage and tents. These are the products that will bring in the entertainment and arts to the visitors.

Where Cold Stone Creamery is located

There were also augmented products which include accessibility, customer participation and interaction as well as the ambience like the lightings. SAF is located at the Esplanade Park thus, it is accessible for the visitors to come because of the nearest public transport; MRT circle line (Esplanade and Marina Bay). There was also visitors’ participation where during the Bridge Cafe Project Programme started, the dancers will bring the visitors in to join them in the dance. Hence it creates a very friendly, fun and enjoyable moment. Also, there are other surrounding buildings and places where the visitors can go to after or before the festival starts. And this includes the Marina Bay and the Esplanade Theatre.

The lightings that create the magical ambience.

Place:

The place looks into the distribution of the event products and how they are sold to visitors which means how the program tickets are being sold. The tickets were available through SISTIC where customers can either purchase them in shopping centres or online. SAF also made use of the technology and media like Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and iPhone apps to create awareness and promote the event.

Partnership:

SAF principal partner for 2012 is The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) and the premier sponsors are Singapore Totalisator Board, OCBC Cards and the Singapore Turf Club. There are also many other major sponsors and partners like Lee Foundation, SMRT media, National Library Board, Kitchen Language and many more. These sponsors have done such a great help to the event and it would be nothing without them.

Ads at the MRT platform

Ads supported by SMRT in the MRT itself

Programming

The performances involved more than 500 artists and groups from Singapore as well as International Friends where the festival showcased both local and international acts, as well as collaborations and performances beyond that of Traditional Performances. There was a wide range of activities that started off in the mid of the day all the way till night time thus making visitors to have a choice of activities throughout their day.

Price:

The Festival Village presents a mix of ticketed and free with fun filled activities and over 300 free performances for every one of all age groups. Other than the performances and the ticketed prices, there are also other prices that were involve like F&B. The Cold Stone Creamery sells the ice cream at about less than $10. There was a little competition for ice-cream because there was the ice-cream man with his motorbike that sells ice-cream at around $1 to $1.50. Well, people can choose the either the higher quality or the cheaper one. Either way, both the queue was very long. These were the places where the event earns their revenue from. Other revenues also came from the flea as well as The Bridge Cafe Project.

Spooky Stories by Children

I did one of the story teller's spooky make up!

This is the part that I am very excited about because I was one of the volunteer there! I helped out by moving the audiences from one station to another. Well, a brief introduction about the programme is that there were children between the ages from 10 to 14 years old who were actually the story tellers of the programme. They tell spooky stories to audiences who are either their family members or random visitors of the event, either adults or kids who are interested in the programme. 

There were two main station; Spooky Stories by the River and Spooky Stories by the Park. There will be volunteers from Leisure Resort Management, which is us, bringing the audience to the different sub stations.  The audience will get to hear nine different spooky stories from the children. I was located at the park. The lights there were purposely put at dimmed to create the ambience. The locations were at the ‘The Three Trees’, ‘The Fountain’ and ‘The Steps’. I felt that the location of the station was chosen well because the surroundings were appropriate for the programme.

The Fountain

One of The Fountain storyteller

The Three Trees

The Steps

I managed to ask some of the audience; kids and adults on how they felt about the whole experience of the programme. Most of them said it was very successful because they did not expect the story tellers to be that scary thinking that they are only kids! It turned out to be frightening to some adults as well and one of them back off because he was afraid that he would have nightmares. In my opinion, the story tellers were really amazing. Their tone and expression were very well done and honestly, I had shivers down my spine and goose bumps at certain moments as the stories were told. Overall, I have gained experiences and learnt how to managed crowd control.

The programme itself attracted a crowd of all ages. Young or old, there were all invited to the programme. There were more people attending the programme during the weekend as compared to that on Friday’s maybe because most of the visitors are working or schooling during the weekdays and are freer during the weekends.

The Ambassadors of Spooky Stories

Kids Arts Village

Kids Arts Village is anchored by very unique architectural performance installations. What is good that all the programs were free! There were six activities involving the children but I only managed to go to three of them and they are Tangle, The Young Ones! Performance Showcase, Spooky Stories by Children.

The Young Ones! Performance Showcase

Moving on, I went to the main stage area as I heard the wonderful plucking guitar ensemble from a group of Catholic Junior College students. That was one of the events that I was looking forward to because I love ensemble, well actually any kind of music. Just like what it was mentioned in the SAF website, the euphonious sound of the plucking was really beautiful and enjoyable. Although there were no chairs provided at that sandy and grass patches, there were green mats for them to sit on and enjoy the performances. Despite the sandy area, a lot of people still sat on the mats and were enjoying the performances.

Catholic JC Guitar Ensemble Performing

Tangle

Afterwards, at 6.30pm I went over to the “Tangle” to see how the kids really got tangled. Before that, there were quite a number of visitors asking for directions to “Tangle”. It was very popular and as I thought so, when the activity started there was a long queue. I observed the activity and laughed at how all the kids got tangled in the ribbons. I interviewed some of the parents and children there and they mentioned it was a fun and enjoyable activity for the kids.

The start of Tangle

The end of Tangle

Experiences & Outcome

As I walked out of the Esplanade Theatre, I came across a chaotic flea. Curiosity struck me because I did not expect that the festival would include a flea in their event. Upon stepping under the bridge, roaming around the flea, the atmosphere changed and the festive mood dawdled as I heard loud music being played. I proceeded towards the sound of music and I knew it was from the festival due to the distinctive huge white tents.

I was amazed by the crowd that attended the festival and on top of that, there were numerous tents around that initially confused me because I did not know where to start. But thankfully with the festival guide that was given to me, yes the snazzy yellow and black information booklet, I managed to locate myself and not get lost. You can expect to find programme information for all the 16 days, event calendar, ticketing information, and the time slots for each program. It was also displayed in this huge board right at the entrance of the festival. In my opinion, that was very thoughtful because it provides the information for some visitors who do not have the guide booklet. Therefore, both the board and the booklet was very useful for visitors as they were able to get updates on the activities and the timing through the information given with the location map all laid out clearly for their perusal. Therefore, what was promised in the brochures, advertisements were all achieved.

The Festival Guides Booklets

However I was a little disappointed with some of the staffs that were at the information booth. I went to approach two of the staffs to ask on how to redeem the goodies like lanyard, badges etc. Both the staff was not friendly at all although they did replied to our question. I was upset because they did not briefly tell us on the exact steps to get the goodies. They just mentioned “Just download the app from your iPhone and wait.” I was bewildered and questions formed in my head. It was not clear at all and when I asked another staff, they said the same thing. How can visitors get the proper information and a clear one? I was not sure the reason why they did not briefly tell us but I thought maybe because we were wearing the pink volunteer festival shirt and that they expect us to know the information. Nevertheless, I did not expect such outcomes from the staffs.

Public Garden Flea Market

I have yet to mention about the intriguing flea market called “Public Garden Flea Market”. Why was there a “garden” in the name? I found out after much roaming and that is; most of the items they were hand-made! The others were some old collections bought overseas, or some antique items. Basically, they go green. Not to mention, I bought one of the hand-made item there and it is a tote bag that cost only $8.80. Looking at the material used, it was worth the price, not any kind of cheapskate item.

The flea under the bridge

The tote bag and a badge from the flea!