SINGAPORE - The Pasir Panjang Power Station is set to hold two events in December, with up to 400 in the live audience for a concert, as the country moves cautiously towards allowing large-scale events that meet some requirements.
The first is a Christmas-themed concert, Flock - The Xmas Edition, on Dec 20. It features home-grown acts Nathan Hartono, Aisyah Aziz and Lorong Boys in afternoon and evening performances, with 400 tickets available for each show.
It is part of an ongoing pilot with mandatory pre-event antigen rapid tests (ART) for attendees of large-scale indoor live performances. The tests are free at designated clinics for audience members.
The second is an arts event, Convey, split into two sessions, on Dec 27 in which poets Charlene Shepherdson, Crispin Rodrigues, Marylyn Tan and Gwee Li Sui create works live with illustrators Darel Seow and Weng Pixin. Fifty tickets are available for each session. Attendees need not take the ART test.
The afternoon show in the Flock concerts, which are supported by the Singapore Tourism Board, will start at 2.30pm and will feature performances by Hartono and Aisyah.
The second, which will start at 8.30pm, will have performances by Hartono and Lorong Boys.
Each set is expected to last close to two hours.
The concerts are part of the Flock At The Nest concert series, which began in October with an online gig featuring Singapore singers Benjamin Kheng, lewloh and Marian Carmel.
Hartono, the singer of this year's National Day Parade (NDP) theme song Everything I Am, is looking forward to singing in front of a live audience again.
"I'm super-excited. We've all been going legally insane in the past few months," says the singer who made a regional impact as a finalist in Chinese singing competition, Sing! China in 2016. "The audience is irreplaceable. I always knew performing live is what I need, and not just what I do. So, this is quite a release."
Aisyah says that the year-end concert would make up for a year without live gigs. "I started off 2020 with kick-ass performances. I thought the year was going to be crazy good, and then everything went into lockdown. The world has sent its message, and I've come full circle," she says.
Lorong Boys member Joachim Lim, who plays drums and percussion, says their set will feature the mix of genres that the group is known for. "We've written and recorded new songs during the past few months. We will be meshing classical, jazz and pop, with new arrangements." The group also comprises violinist David Loke, pianist, guitarist and composer Jonathan Shin and flautist Rit Xu.
The pop concert industry in Singapore, battered by restrictions put in place due to the pandemic, is slowly starting to pick itself up with shows that have live audiences.
On Dec 18 and 19, Back To Live, a two-day show by home-grown artists, is expected to draw 500 music fans each night to the Sands Theatre at Marina Bay Sands.
Arts events are also gradually returning.
Convey, commissioned by the #BuySingLit reading campaign and supported by the National Arts Council, will see the writers and artists take turns to contribute to two collective pieces, a poem and an artwork.
The audience are also encouraged to not just watch, but to also write their own poems or draw their own sketches.
The first session, at 2pm, will be about one hour and 35 minutes long. The second session, which starts at 3.45pm, will run for about two hours and 25 minutes.
Shepherdson, who is the general manager of non-profit organisation Sing Lit Station, says: "I'm excited to be in the same physical space as other creatives to collaborate on a pen-and-paper project again. It's a different experience making embodied art and bouncing ideas off each other rather than solo responses in digital spaces."
Seow, who has done illustrations for institutions such as the Asian Civilisations Museum in Singapore and the British Museum in London, says: "It's a beautiful expression of the connective power of the arts as we weave pictures and words, bringing people together both in-person and on-screen.
"Convey is a message to all that we'll just keep creating whatever the circumstances might, and despite all the distancing, there are many more things to keep us together."
Audience members at both events, organised by event promoters promoter 24Owls, can be seated in groups of up to five but no intermingling between groups or single ticket holders is allowed.
They have to be masked, and must check in using the TraceTogether app or token.
Those who are unwell will not be allowed into the venue.
Book It
Flock - The Xmas Edition
Where: Pasir Panjang Power Station, 27 Pasir Panjang Road
When: Dec 20, 2.30pm and 8:30pm
Admission: $35, $50 and $70 from this website
Convey
Where: Pasir Panjang Power Station, 27 Pasir Panjang Road
When: Dec 27, 2pm and 3.45pm
Admission: $15 from this website
