I visit Singapore Night Festival, here's whether it's worth staying up late for

Looking for activities to do after the sun sets? Thanks to the upcoming Singapore Night Festival, there are several to look forward to. 

The event, which is organised by the National Heritage Board, is back for its 15th edition and will take place from Aug 23 to Sept 7. 

And for the first time, the event spans across three weekends, with previous editions having been held only for two. 

The theme this year is Art of Play, and the event will feature more than 50 programmes exploring the concept of childhood and play.

These were inspired by the historical significance of Bras Basah and Bugis, which is the birthplace of some of Singapore's first schools like Anglo Chinese School and St. Joseph's Institution. 

As the event stretches across the Bras Basah and Bugis area, there is plenty of walking. But I found it a great way to clock in some steps while exploring the fun installations. 

A retro amusement park to evoke nostalgia 

This year's highlight act is Wonder World — The Machine of Nostalgia, an amusement park inspired by those that you could find all the way back in the 1950s. 

It's the brainchild of local contemporary artist Sam Lo, also known as SKL0. 

Sam aimed to recapture the nostalgic atmosphere of the trio of "world amusement parks" from yesteryear Singapore, which were New World Park, Great World and Gay World. 

Here, guests can enjoy rides on a carousel, win prizes at game booths or enjoy some bites from the various food booths. 

There will also be events like Headlocks & Heritage, where guests can witness pro wrestling matches, and Poetry Fight Night, where poets battle it out with wits and rhyme. 

This is a ticketed zone and attendees have to pay $25 per pax to get 10 tokens, which serve as an entry charge. Visitors are still allowed to remain in the gated area even if tokens have been exhausted.

Wonder World — The Machine of Nostalgia will held at Cathay Green and guests can visit on Aug 23 to 25, Aug 28 to Sept 1 and Sept 4 to Sept 7. It's open from 7.30pm to 11pm.  

Festival villages, night light installations, projection mapping and more 

This year, there are four festival villages to explore — Twilight Playground @ GR.iD, Pixel Paradise, Festival Village @ Chijmes, and SMU Arts Fest 2024: Play. 

I got to visit Festival Village @ Chijmes and Pixel Paradise. 

One highlight of this year's edition of the Singapore Night Festival is projection mapping, and four out of five of these — A Prototype of Play, A Whimsical Odyssey, Pinbola and Play Downstairs —  just so happen to be at Festival Village @ Chijmes. 

While enjoying the projection mapping shows, guests can chill at the nearby eateries while enjoying some drinks and food. 

The last projection mapping show, Between Threads, is at Pixel Paradise, which is located at Armenian Street near the Peranakan Museum. 

Also located at Armenian Street is one of my favourite night light installations — First Flight.

This features a larger-than-life glowing paper plane that represents the paper plane that students used to make in school. 

Guests can make their own planes too with the provided foolscap paper. 

Funan, which is a short walk away from Armenian Street, houses another night light installation called Fortune Beads. 

The immersive installation was inspired by the beads of an abacus, a mathematical tool that some of us may have used before back in school. 

To play with it, guests need to touch as many illuminated beads as possible within a limited timeframe to collect points. There's also a leaderboard to show who has the highest score. 

A short walk away from Fortune Beads outside Raffles City is Red House Cafe, which was inspired by the Red House Bakery, a popular hangout spot in the 1960s. 

The two installations are of a massive, glowing cake and curry puff. 

About an 11-minute walk from Armenian Street is National Design Centre, which houses two more of my favourite night light installations — Opera in Motion and Scents of Being. 

Opera in Motion pays tribute to the traditional art of Chinese opera, something that used to be a common sight in Singapore. 

The light installation features a tricycle stacked high with tarpaulin-covered boxes. 

It's an extremely interactive exhibit, too. 

At the sides of the tarpaulin boxes are three zoetropes, which are pre-film animation devices that produce the illusion of motion with lights and shadows. Turn the wheel at the base of the zoetrope to make the little figures in it dance and move. 

Visitors can even try their hand at cycling on the tricycle, which in turn throws up projections of opera masks on the surrounding walls. 

Recordings of Chinese opera taken from the National Library archives will also be playing in the background, adding to the vibes. 

On the other hand, Scents of Being is an olfactory installation by Australian cosmetics brand Aesop that explores the connection between scent and self. 

It was simply designed to look like a mystical forest with eleven bone-coloured towers of lights. 

But the exhibit wasn't meant to just be visually appealing. 

Each tower has several holes in them, emitting a different fragrance from the brand's collection. 

Among these smells is also the newest addition to Aesop's scent range, which will be launching in early September. 

An extremely trippy night light installation to experience is The Happiest Days of Our Lives at Stamford Arts Centre. 

It's a blacklight immersive mural inspired by the rich history of Stamford Arts Centre, which was formerly home to many educational institutions like a Japanese Elementary School and Waterloo Girls School. 

Older guests may recognise some of the illustrations in this exhibit, which were taken from old, long-gone textbooks from the 1960s to 1990s. These are painted in bright neon colours, making it an Instagram-worthy photo backdrop. 

The final installation I visited was Delulu High, which transforms familiar objects from our childhood into fun, colourful play zones. 

For instance, there is a life-sized pink disco bus, which you can dance around in. 

There's also The Funnazium, featuring colourful (and very light) gym equipment. 

These various festival villages and installations are not ticketed zones. They will all be available from 7.30pm to 12am daily. 

While there's so much more to explore such as performances and experiential programmes, I only had three hours. 

And during these three hours of exploring, I managed to clock in a whopping 7,000 steps. 

As the event requires plenty of walking, I recommend wearing a good pair of shoes or you'll get blisters like I did. 

And if you don't want to exhaust yourself, fret not as you have three weeks to explore all the different installations, performances and experiential programmes. Split them up over the weeks and enjoy them at your own pace!

The Singapore Night Festival will run from Aug 23 to Sept 7 from 7.30pm to 12am.

ALSO READ: World's largest light and multimedia illumination event coming to Singapore in September

melissateo@asiaone.com