Arts groups in Singapore rush to reconfigure concerts, live shows before new Covid-19 rules kick in

SINGAPORE - Arts groups and concert promoters are scrambling to adapt live performances after the authorities announced new restrictions on Tuesday (May 4) to curb a spike in Covid-19 cases.

From Saturday to May 30, the maximum number of people allowed at live performances will be reduced from 750 to 250 attendees - or just 100, if there is no pre-event testing. Social gatherings will be capped at five people, down from eight.

The Singapore Chinese Orchestra (SCO) has introduced additional show times for two of its concerts to avoid pre-event testing.

The orchestra's executive director Terence Ho said they had already begun making contingency plans after hearing about the new Covid-19 clusters.

"On Friday evening, I called an urgent meeting. We started preparing (slots) for extra concerts. We now have to activate these alternative plans."

SCO's sold-out Mother's Day Concert: To Mom, With Love on Saturday, which was supposed to have 220 attendees, will now be split into two sessions - at 5pm and 8pm. Each session will have a capacity of 100 audience members.

Another sold-out SCO show, the Young Children's Concert 2021: DiSCOvering Treasures of Chinese Music - Riddles in the Raindrops, will also divide audiences on May 29 into two sessions, at 2.30pm and 5pm.

At both of these performances, audiences can only sit in groups of up to five people.

Ticketing platform Sistic will contact ticket-holders and ask them if they wish to switch to the new time slots. Those who do not can ask for a refund or donate their ticket fees.

Vocal band MICappella have postponed their concerts at Marina Bay Sands' Sands Theatre from May 15 and 16 to July 30 and 31. Each show will have 250 in the audience.

Ms Chantal Prudhomme, chief executive of concert promoters Base Entertainment Asia, said almost all the tickets have been sold and that the move was "the best way forward to ensure that they are able to perform for all their fans who have bought tickets".

Others are waiting on word from the authorities as to whether they can continue.

The Singapore International Festival of Arts (Sifa), which returns from May 14 to 30 after being driven into hiatus by the pandemic last year, will also be affected by the latest restrictions.

Several of its stage productions have already sold out. Last week, the organisers released more tickets to meet the demand, though they still capped each performance at 250 attendees.

Sifa will soon update its arrangements pending approvals from the authorities, said a spokesman from Arts House Limited, the festival organiser.

The Singapore Symphony Orchestra (SSO) will try to avoid cancelling its publicised programmes, but is also waiting on further guidance.

A spokesman said: "SSO will need to await the advisory from the National Arts Council to either reduce audience capacity or admit patrons who have undergone pre-event testing or been vaccinated."

SSO's upcoming shows include its Mother's Day Concert at the Botanic Gardens on Sunday (May 9), its first outdoor performance since the circuit breaker.

The free event was fully registered at 100 attendees, though the organisers were also already planning to live-stream it on Facebook.

Meanwhile, a series of concerts at The Substation Garden that takes place until the end of July will go on as scheduled for now, as they will have only 90 people in the audience. The only change is that the audience can only come in groups of five, instead of eight.