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Cheryl Alethea Lee
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Singapore Arts Festival

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May 2012



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Designer: yikthong
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Date:Thursday, May 24, 2012  Time:1:33 PM
A day at Singapore Arts Festival


Singapore Arts Festival 2012

Background
The Singapore Arts Festival is a major event that has started since 1977 and its purpose is to allow artists to showcase their talent in Singapore on a national scale and creates a platform that attracts the attention of the public into appreciating arts. It is annually organized by the National Arts Council (NAC) and has contributed a significant role in developing Singapore’s arts and culture into what it is today. It has transformed the city’s landscape in a way and has influenced how the artists produce their works in terms of Singapore’s urban developments and architecture or even, retained old-time building.

For this year, the 16-day event programme consists of 29 ticketed programmes, 58 free entry programmes, and 6 free entry programmes for children. The theme this year is based on completing the trilogy that has started two years ago, being named as “Our Lost Poems”. One of the key venues of this event is the Festival’s hub, which is the Festival Village that is set up at the Esplanade Park along Connaught Road, where most of the programmes are taken place at.

In year 2010, the total attendance for ticketed and non-ticketed productions hit a lowest record of 49,000, while it was 80,000 in year 2009. NCA thus, have to work doubly hard this year in order to gain back visitors confidence in towards this annual event.

The Marketing Mix
Product
Visitors of this event get to gain a great exposure to local arts and culture that may have been lost which is why this year’s theme is titled “Our Lost Poems”, which aims to discover stories to be told or retold to the new generation and allow them to know more about arts. Educational values can be seen as the young and old get to learn more about arts and cultures in this event.

Place/Location
With the Festival Village being set up at the Esplanade Park, it is surrounded by other arts venue featuring the Esplanade and the Asian Civilisation Museum. Visitors of the event can enjoy the city skyline or even drop by to these other venues to see more of Singapore’s arts and get to appreciate them, which is what the NAC wants to bring out from through this event.
Its centralised location also allows easy accessibility via buses and trains, besides the fact that parking facilities are not near and that visitors may have to park at available parking lots at nearby landmarks or buildings and walk a reasonable distance over to the Festival Village.
Esplanade Park

Partnerships (Stakeholders)
Every event has their own stakeholders and every stakeholder are parties that are interested to know how is the event coming up with and this may include the host organiser, host community, sponsors, media, co-workers, participants, and the audience.

The host organiser of the event will be the National Arts Council, which is a governmental agency and they have joined hands with Singapore Tourism Board (STB) to make this event happen. This may attract more tourists to visit the event, since STB is the closest organisation that is related to tourist arrivals.

The premier sponsor of the event is Singapore Turf Club and Tote Board while the major sponsors are Lee Foundation, Suntec Singapore, and Old School.
The organiser has also partnered with Kitchen Language for Food & Beverages, Unusual Productions Pte Ltd for their technical productions, and SMRT Media for outdoor productions.

There are also 5 programme partners namely Cold Stone Creamery, Ibis Hotel, NPEPrint Communication Pte Ltd, Aria Carpets Pte Ltd, and National Library Board.
The sponsors of the event are namely the Hong Leong Foundation, Japanese Chamber of Commerce & Industry Singapore, Tan Chin Tuan Foundation, Ying Fo Fui Kun.

Supporters are important to every event as without them, an event may not be successful and for this year’s Singapore Arts Festival, the supporters are namely
Nonetheless, without the venue, the event is not possible and thus, the partnership with National Parks Board is greatly acknowledged.

As compared to previous years, the number of sponsors and supporters has decreased and that there used to be an official TV channel that does a media coverage on this event. There was also an official sparkling beverage for the event. The National Parks Board, however, have been constantly partnering with NAC to carry out this event after all these years.
People
Art lovers will grace this event and with 300 over volunteers helping out in this event, some of them are art lovers as well. An interview with Madam Tan, who was a 70-year-old volunteer at the event, said that it has been a few years that she has volunteered for Singapore Arts Festival and that it brings her joy to be able to be part of the event as she gets to help out in something that she enjoys She also pointed out that families and friends can take this opportunity to enjoy appreciating arts together. With the volunteers themselves being art lovers, it brings up the whole atmosphere of the event to a new level.
Promotion
NAC has made great efforts in promoting the events through various channels like billboards, radio stations, posters at lamp posts, or even posters at bus stops. These are common channels of promotion that companies use to promote their events or products and it certainly reaches a wide range of potential market, be it art lovers or not.
Programme booklets, flyers, and brochures were also given out at the Festival Village to allow visitors to get more information of the daily available programmes that has been lined up.
Programme Booklet of the event
However, there is no TV channel that is doing a media coverage for this year’s event. This may be due to lack of capital due to more efforts made for coming up with more programmes and so, it may affect the number of target audience that can be reached.
Price
The event has programmes with either free or paid entries. There are 29 paid programmes and 58 free entry programmes this year and as compared to last year’s event, there are 6 paid programmes and 31 free entry programmes more. This proves that NAC is trying their best to offer more programmes so as to attract more potential market.

The large increase in free entry programmes can attract visitors who are new or curious about art and that the paid programmes can cater more to the high society people or people who are really devoted in appreciating arts. There is even 6 free entry programmes to cater for the children at the Kids Arts Village. It is the second time that the event has this catered for the kids and these appeals families to come over to visit the event, since the young and old can both enjoy activities that are designed for them.
One of the activities for the kids: Tangled

However, there are promotional rates made available for various groups of people. Before the event commenced, there were 2 types of ticketing sales going on namely the pre-sale phase and the early-bird phase.

The pre-sale phase which begins from 15 to 18 March, allows visitors to get 10% discount off single show purchases and 30% discount from purchases to two or more performances.
As for the early bird phase which begins from 19 March to 15 April, allows visitors to get 10% discount off single shows or, 20% discount off tickets to two or more performances or when a minimum of 4 tickets per show is purchased.

As soon as the event commence, general sales prices are offered that offers visitors with a 15% discount off when a minimum of 4 tickets per show is purchased.
Nonetheless, in order to appeal to the young and old, concession rates of 20% discount off tickets are given to full-time students, NSFs’ personnel, and the senior citizens. Schools who books tickets for this event get to enjoy 20% discount off tickets and one complimentary ticket for groups of 20.

Many local youth designers got the chance to set up their own stalls to sell products that are designed by them. This is a good opportunity for both the youths and the organiser as this gives them a platform to showcase their talent and yet, enhancing Singapore’s arts and culture to the visitors. Since there is no event merchandise made available for visitors to bring home, visitors can purchase these products home as souvenirs instead. Not only does this generate income to the young designers, it yet allows the visitors to appreciate and recognise Singapore’s art more.
Stalls set up by youth designers.

Programming
There are various reasons why some programmes requires paid entry and why some does not require visitors to pay. One of the most prominent reason is that the paid entry programmes requires more preparation work than those that are free. A good comparison would be the programme “The Flight of the Jade Bird” and “Platform Campus – Circle Lines”.

"The Flight of the Jade Bird" is a paid entry programme that involves the performance of local musician, Mark Chan, who has been recognised by many for being able to link music and dance through the use of Chinese and Western instruments with his group of musicians. Great effort is needed in coordinating this 2-day performance which is why it is charged and not free. 

As for “Platform Campus – Circle Lines”, it is a programme that is created by students from National University of Singapore (NUS) and Singapore Management University (SMU) to illustrate how close everyone is and yet, so far. Since it is a programme initiated by students and proudly supported by SMRT, it is no doubt cheaper to cater for visitors, which explains its free entry.
Packaging
From posters to radio advertising, NAC has made sure that they portray to the audience the same image that they have gave for the past two years, since this year is a continuation from the previous years and that it marks the end of this trilogy. It assures that return visitors from previous years’ event will get the link in between and they will get to understand the whole flow of the trilogy.



Unavailable Market
There is always an unavailable market for every event as not every event appeals to everyone. The unavailable market explains that these people could most probably be impossible to be drawn in to be a potential market and it could be people who are not interested, people who are budget-conscious, or people who have sought for a better substitute.

The reasons why some people are not interested could be due to their personality differences that affects their interest. For instance, a thrill-seeker is mostly likely not going to visit an art museum at free will as it is not something that he or she seeks in.
Those who are budget-conscious may use value to make their choices. One would not spend so much on something that they may think is not worth it while some may see the value within it and be willing to spend more.
Competitors, which are direct substitutes, tend to get in the way when customers make their decisions. This causes the potential market to be diverted away to competitors if it appeals to them more.

As for Singapore Arts Festival, the unavailable market could be the thrill-seekers. It is almost impossible to attract them in visiting the event as it is not something that meets their wants. The budget-conscious people are still able to visit the event since there is a various amounts of free entry programme available and at this point in time, there are no competitors or similar substitutes available thus, people who are not interested could most probably be the unavailable market.
How to attract the unavailable market?
Since arts may not interest the unavailable market, NAC may try to create more programmes that are more interaction-based which can appeal to people who are more hands-on or are thrill-seekers. NAC can also try to come up with programmes that may attract the older generation. It can be programmes that emphasise on the traditions and cultures and that when they visit the event, they get to re-experience everything.
Personal Comments
As it was my first time visiting the Singapore Arts Festival, I expected it to be very grand in terms of the event set up and the atmosphere. In my opinion, as a visitor, I did not really enjoy myself as there was no proper guide on where should I go and due to the large area that the Festival Village is spread across, the whole event loses its “feel” since every programme is scattered unevenly. Also, there is irregular flow of programmes with big time lapses between programmes, making me lose the patience in waiting for the upcoming programme.

I managed to interview Miss Wahyuni from Indonesia and she pointed out that she expected the event to be of a larger scale as read from the website with the large amounts of programmes available. It was quite of a disappointment for her as she took her time off to come down to the event as part of her trip’s itinerary.

I would suggest NAC use the aid of technology to set up electronic boards or screen to display what shows are available at that point in time at different locations so that visitors will not have to constantly flip the programme booklet in order to know what is showing. 

There is also a lack in food and beverages outlets for visitors to relax at.
Festival Cafe: 1 of the 2 F&B outlets available at the event

I would still look forward to Singapore Arts Festival 2013 as it indeed allowed me to appreciate arts more, especially in visual context in terms of acts, musicals, and showcases. It also allowed me to enjoy my time with my friends as we went to the event together and managed to gain more knowledge. We definitely enjoyed ourselves!

The friendly volunteers at the event that were also students themselves. 
My friend, Wenting & I. After a day at the event. 


References:
Singapore Arts Fest closes to lower ticket sales. Chan, S. 08 June 2011. Taken from http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1134031/1/.html

Singapore Arts Festival Official Website: www.singaporeartsfest.com

Singapore Arts Festival 2012, Our Lost Poems (2012). Festival Guide. Singapore: Singapore Arts Festival 2012

Temasek Polytechnic. (2012). Festivals and Events Management Lecture 1: Introduction and Overview of Festivals and Events. Singapore: Temasek Polytechnic Leisure and Resort Management Division

Temasek Polytechnic. (2012). Festivals and Events Management Lecture 2: The Impacts of Events. Singapore: Temasek Polytechnic Leisure and Resort Management Division

Temasek Polytechnic. (2012). Festivals and Events Management Lecture 4: Festivals and Events Marketing Part 1. Singapore: Temasek Polytechnic Leisure and Resort Management Division