GET ready for mythical, watery creatures to emerge from Boat Quay on May 23 as part of the opening celebrations of the annual Singapore Arts Festival.

You will be greeted by Venetian gondolas, cyclists speeding by on water and sailors with their hats on fire, transforming the river into a water wonderland.

This 45-minute visual extravaganza, staged by French performance troupe Ilotopie, is one of 450 free performances that will take to the streets as part of the festival's month-long outreach programme.

Events will be held in shopping malls, open fields and - for the first time - hawker centres.

Quek Yeng Yeng, 38, deputy director of the festival, hopes the street performances will create a 'festival buzz' throughout the city until June 22.

The outreach programme, which started in the early 1980s, usually takes up 20 per cent of the $7-million festival budget. This year's number of outreach events has remained about the same as last year's.

And there will be plenty to make your eyes pop when the festival gets into full swing.

Expect marching bands of flamenco dancers and life-sized giraffes strolling through Orchard Road, while cycling piano players infiltrate the rest of town.

The Three Tai-tais, a local performance group, will sing and tease their way through the crowds with gravity-defying hairdos, heavy 'bling' and manicured fingernails worthy of the X-Men character Wolverine.

With the Arts Where We Eat series, street buskers including singers, musicians and balloon-twisters will pop up at places such as Newton Food Centre, Tiong Bahru Market and East Coast Lagoon Food Village.

Read the full story in Saturday's edition of The Straits Times Life!