A carousel of angels at the National Museum of Singapore and a street parade of dancers and musicians on Armenian Street will descend upon the city come end August, as part of the annual Singapore Night Festival.
This year's festival commission, Garden Of Angels, is presented by Belgian theatre company Theater Tol, which was also part of the festival in 2011. It has two components, with a street parade that starts from Armenian Street and moves towards the front lawn of the National Museum, where a giant halo of angels suspended in the air will greet the crowd.
The popular outdoor festival returns for its eighth year for two weekends on Aug 21, 22, 28 and 29 with over 60 festival partners. Gardens Of Angels will be on the second weekend.
As with last year, the festival, which is organised by the National Museum, will be held in the Bras Basah Bugis precinct.
Armenian Street and Cheng Yan Place in Bugis will be closed to vehicles during the festival period. Expect large crowds - last year's festival drew more than 500,000 people.
Coming on the heels of the National Day Parade, this year's festival will continue the celebrations of Singapore's jubilee year with its theme, Glitz And Glamour.
Popular components of the festival will return, such as the series of light installations called Night Lights and food and music performances at the festival village. The latter, which was on the field opposite The Cathay last year, will be moved to SMU Green instead.
But there are a number of new components these year to enthrall the regular festivalgoer, with the festival's creative director Christie Chua promising "works that have a lot of fun and are pretty, glitzy and glamorous".
Catch the colourful and edgy performances of House Of Glamour, a house-shaped tent on the field opposite The Cathay, which will host different artists over the two weekends. Some of these acts will be ticketed at $15 while others are free.
The performances include RIOT!, a drag performance featuring drag queen Becca D'Bus and three other drag queens; Lost Vegas, a rock and roll and Las Vegas-inspired puppetry show by home-grown artist Frankie Malachi; and Kumar's Cabaret, by Singapore's first lady of comedy, Kumar.
Some of these acts may be risque and these will carry appropriate ratings where necessary. But others are more family-friendly, such as improv comedy and theatre performances.
Another new feature this year is Behind The Night, a series of ticketed talks and workshops where you will be able to meet the artists. Tickets for talks costs $12, while workshop admissions range from $28 to $38.
For example, local flow arts group Starlight Alchemy will present Alchemy, a spectacle of fire and light on the lawn of the Singapore Art Museum during the first weekend. It will also hold workshops on hula hooping and flow arts, a movement-based art form that merges dance with theatre and prop manipulation.
There will also be new venues such as the private museum Singapore Pinacotheque de Paris in Fort Canning Park, photography space DECK at Prinsep Street and Cheng Yan Place in Bugis.
The programmes for these venues, as well as other activities, will be announced by the festival team in the coming weeks.
Members of the public can visit http://www.nightfest.sg for more information.
