SINGAPORE - The Mid-Autumn Festival will return to Gardens by the Bay for the fifth time. This year, the festival celebrates the season through the theme of Autumn Abundance.
Mid-Autumn @ Gardens by the Bay will run from Sept 22 to Oct 8, and will be officially opened on Sept 22 at 7.30pm by Mr Desmond Lee, Minister in the Prime Minister's Office and Second Minister for Home Affairs and National Development.
Visitors can expect to see numerous lantern sets depicting various scenes of harvest and abundance, including one of a fishing village, entitled Waters of Prosperity, at the Dragonfly Lake.
This set, which spans 1,250 sq m over water and features 70 carp lanterns, will be the largest display to have graced the Gardens grounds.
Other highlights include Grains of Gold, where the area near Dragonfly Lake is transformed into a paddy field illuminated with around 4,000 glowing rice stalks, and Trail of Abundance, a trail over 200m, with lanterns that portray woodland insects carrying crops to the Supertree Grove.
Besides the sprawling sets, there will also be a community project called Illuminations of Joy, where around 1,000 installations created by beneficiaries from welfare organisations will be lit.
There will also be a programme called Blossoming Harvest, where 28 performances by 24 different groups will be presented, including a Mandarin cross-talk show, a contemporary pop-up dance performed on a vehicle and classical Indian music compositions.
Mid-Autumn @ Gardens by the Bay will also feature booths with games and arts and crafts, and a food street selling Asian favourites.
Most of the sets and activities in the Gardens can be accessed free of charge, except for the display in the indoor Flower Dome called Autumn Harvest.
Visitors there can bask in a lavish field of flowers, fruits and vegetables, with pumpkin-shaped lanterns and special varieties of pumpkins.
This exhibit opens on Sept 1 before the festival begins and admission tickets range from $8 to $28.
Mid-Autumn @ Gardens by the Bay is presented by Gardens by the Bay, co-organised with the National Arts Council, in partnership with Singapore Press Holdings' Chinese Media Group, Singapore University of Technology and Design, and People's Association.