National Day Rally 2019: Bicentennial Experience to be extended to end-2019

The Bicentennial Experience exhibition at Fort Canning was initially supposed to end on Sept 15, after the September school holidays. PHOTO: LIANHE ZAOBAO

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Aug 18, 2019, 08:18 PM

SINGAPORE - The Bicentennial Experience exhibition at Fort Canning will be extended to the end of the year, due to many requests from the public.

It was initially supposed to end on Sept 15, after the September school holidays.

The extension will give more people the chance to see the exhibition, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong at the National Day Rally on Sunday (Aug 18).

He said many community groups, businesses and schools have marked the country's bicentennial in their own ways since the commemoration event was launched in January.

PM Lee cited the recent Eurasian Festival which marked 100 years of the Eurasian Association, and a combined performance by five Indian dance groups in April to celebrate 100 years of Indian classical dance in Singapore.

In a statement, the Singapore Bicentennial Office said the exhibition, titled "From Singapore to Singaporean: The Bicentennial Experience", will be extend its run from Oct 1 to Dec 31 this year, with revised operating hours.

It will close from Sept 16 to Sept 30 for technical maintenance and refurbishment.

The exhibition - the highlight of this year's bicentennial commemoration - takes visitors back in time to witness key moments in Singapore's transformation.

Since its public opening in June, free tickets each month have been snapped up within the first two weeks of release.

"The final tranche of more than 30,000 tickets for September were snapped up by 10.20am on the day of release. In all, more than 450,000 tickets have been released and all of them have been taken up," the SBO said.

The exhibition surpassed its initial target of 300,000 visitors on Aug 3, and is now expected to receive its 400,000th visitor by the end of this month.

Minister for Social and Family Development Desmond Lee, who co-chairs the Singapore Bicentennial Ministerial Steering Committee, said: "By extending the run of the Bicentennial Experience, we hope that many more people will be able to gain a deeper understanding of our rich past, and also draw lessons from it to guide our journey ahead."