First i would like to talk about what the Singapore Arts Festival is. The Singapore Arts Festival is an annual arts festival held in Singapore. Organised by the National Arts council, the Singapore Arts Festival is the one of the biggest in not only the regional art scene, but it is well known globally. The festival is usually held in the middle of the year for around a month, it incorporates music, theatre arts, visual arts and many others. For these festival, approximately 70% of the performances put up are by renowned foreign artists.
I visited the Singapore Arts Festival's opening ceremony on 15th May. The performance that i watched was called the “Hélios II La Compagnie Malabar” (France). It was held at Marina Barrage. The "Hélios II La Compagnie Malabar” is the mythological tale of the creation of the sun god, Hélios. I was treated to a display of weird gigantic insects, people on poles who are the builders of the light and worshippers of the sun. It also helped that this performance was held at night as the performers dished out a wonderful symphony of lights, sounds and dazzling pyrotechnic displays.
Next, i'm going to compare The Singapore Arts Festival to the Bali Arts Festival. Why did i choose the Bali Arts Festival? This is because Bali is also part of South-East Asia and in a way, a competitor for tourists to Singapore. I am going to use the 8Ps: Product, Place, People, Programming, Price, Packaging & Distribution, Promotions and Partnership to compare this two festivals.First i would start with product. Both of these festivals are showcasing many different art performances. However, the Singapore Arts Festival would be a better pick over the Bali Arts Festival. This is because the Singapore Arts Festival showcases performances from many different cultures. This stems from the fact that approximately 70% of the performers at the Arts Festival are not local. For the Bali Arts Festival, it takes the Balinese Culture and distills it into a month long celebration, it lets tourists experience a millenium of artistic tradition rooted in Hindu and Balinese mythology. Overall, product-wise, i believe that the Singapore Arts Festival is a more complete product.
Next i would move on to place. The Singapore Arts Festival is held in Singapore and the Bali Arts Festival is held in Bali (Indonesia). Comparing the current state of public transport and and accessibility of places in both countries, i would say Singapore would be better pick. Singapore has one of the best public transport systems in the world. The Mass Rapid Transit (MRT), public buses (SBS) and the taxis are all very easily accessed. However, in Bali, which is an island, the public transport system is not very good. Public transport is the cheapest way to travel in Bali but its not going to be a very comfortable experience. Public Transport is recommended for short trips only. Reviews about Bali's public transport show that the buses and Bemo's (Mini-Vans) are often overcrowded and hot. In terms of comparison to Singapore, Bali's public transport system is no where near Singapore's system now.
Public Transport in Bali
Public Transport in Singapore
Next up, People! The Singapore Arts Festival attracts approximately a crowd of about 600,000 people from all over the world whereas the Bali Arts Festival attracts a crowd of around 6,000. This only shows the difference in how this 2 festivals are publicised.
Next i will move on to Programming. In terms of programming, both of the festivals have done a great job in scheduling their performances. Venues are well chosen and time slots are stated in both their websites. Although i would like to say that Bali should have a bigger amphitheatre in-case they get a bigger attendance than what they are expecting.
And Price is going to be next! For both of these festivals, there is no fixed price for tickets for admission to performances. The prices for different performances all vary for both festivals.
Next i will move on to Packaging & Distribution. For packages, the Singapore Arts Festival offers different ticket prices to different sectors of society. For example they have the NSmen packages, the senior citizen packages, students get a cheaper price and they can do group bookings as well. For the Bali Arts Festival, all sectors of the community pay the same price. No matter whether your a tourist or a local. Perhaps this is why Singapore attract a higher attendance for the arts festival.
Now we go on to an interesting part, promotions. Promotions is a very good way to get people to notice your product. For the Singapore Arts Festival, it has actually bundled up a package of discounts for you. For Singapore Arts Festival ticket holders, they actually get to enjoy staying in hotels at a discounted price, offers at certain pubs and restaurants and get discounts at shopping malls as well. This is why the Singapore Arts Festival has such a high tourists turnout always. These is because by going to the Singapore Arts Festival, the tourists in Singapore can actually get to do many more things besides just patronising the festival. For the Bali Arts Festival, they do not bundle anything. You just get what your purchasing.
Finally i will go on to Partnership. From the promotions part, you can actually see that the organisers of the Singapore Arts Festival have gone to the extent of getting the best offers for you on your visit to the festival. This would actually tell you the number of partners the organisers have actually seeked for. Partnership also includes sponsors. From the website of the 2 festivals, you can actually see a gulf in the number of sponsors.
After much thought and analysis, i do feel that the Bali Arts Festival has a long way to go before it can compete with the Singapore Arts Festival. The Singapore Arts Festival is the obvious winner because of the more complete package it offers if you come to Singapore for the festival. There are so many other things to do besides just watching the festival. They can experience life in Singapore by going shopping, eating at restaurants and enjoying the vibrant nightlife in Singapore. With just the Singapore Arts Festival ticket, they get to enjoy many privelleges. To summarise, if Bali wants their arts festival to get a higher attendance, they must put themselves into their tourists shoes and know what they can actually do to help enhance the tourists experience. This way, they will get repeat customers and good reviews about the festival which will entice people to come.
The Stakeholders are Host Organisation, Host Community, Sponsors, Media, Co-workers, Participants and Audience.
For the Singapore Arts Festival, the host organisation would be the National Arts Council, host community would be Singapore. Some of the major sponsors of the Singapore Arts Festival would be Vivo City, WingTai Asia, Lee Foundation, Raffles City and many more. For media coverage about the festival, it will be done by mediacorp, OKTO, various radio channels, through the internet and many more. Co-workers in this case would be the performers, technicians, volunteers and many more. Finally participants and audience, we will come under this category, locals and tourtists who attended the performance will also be part of this category.
As for the Bali Arts Festival, the host organisations would be the local government of Bali, host community would be Bali (Indonesia). For media, likewise to its Singapore counterpart would be radio, television, newspapers, internet and many other ways. Some of the sponsors of the Bali Arts Festival would include the Bali Villas which have included the festival as part of the stay in the villa. For co-workers, it would be the Balinese performers, the people who built the platforms for the performances and many more. Participants and audience would be locals and tourists, the same as the Singapore Arts Festival.
The main purpose of the Singapore Arts Festival was originally to celebrate the local arts activites of our community's diverse cultures.
Over the years, the festival has now become a huge event for tourists and people who appreciate arts all over the world. Now not only does the festival showcase performances of our own culture, we also showcase performances from all over the world. With performers from all over the world, Singapore has taken arts in not only our country, but our region to a whole new level. People who do not what really art is might be taken back in awe by this performances as well. This will lead to them coming back for more of these performances out of curiousity and interest.
Finally i will move on tourism benefits recieved by Singapore because of the Arts Festival. The first benefit i would like to talk about would be Politcal Benefits. With a huge inflow of tourists into Singapore, there are going to be a lot of eyes on the Singapore government. With the terrorist threat a real one in our world now, visitors and neighbouring countries would actually be observing how Singapore maintains law and order in the country. I believe that Singapore has done well in making sure that no accidents happen during performances. Security checks are very throrough and guards are always somewhere near you if you require assistance. This benefits us as people will see us as a very safe and stable country. Other countries and foreign companies would be interested to invest in Singapore. An example would be a foreign arts company who wants to have a branch in Singapore because he feels that Singapore is safe and stable and definitely one of the best places to set up a branch. This would actually contribute to the image of Singapore as a global arts hub.
Next i would move on to Economic benefits. With this huge inflow of tourists, there will definitely be an increase in the revenue generated because of money spent by the tourists. And because of the attractive bundles that Singapore Art Festival ticket holders enjoy, the tourists might actually spend more money to make their experience here a much more enjoyable one. What i mean by spending more money is actually by getting lodging in a more well known hotel for example Marina Mandrin, having a feast at a famous restaurant or just partying their night away after the arts festival. All of this at a special rate that the ticket holders enjoy. By making all this cheaper for them, it will actually entice them to spend more. Not only this, Singapore's revenue would also increase from the tax all these tourists pay. Singapore's economy will also stand to gain as foreign companies might try to tie up deals with local companies after experiencing the festival.
Thirdly, would be the Social & Cultural benefits. The Singapore Arts Festival helps tourists and locals alike experience cultures from all over the world. Firstly i would like to talk about our local culture that the tourists experience. With performances from many of our local homegrown talents, i believe that tourists would actually understand our culture better. In addition, Singapore being a multi-racial nation, sometimes even us Singaporeans do not really understand cultures of our fellow Singaporeans. By attending the festival, it would give all of us a much better understanding of the cultures of the different races. Next i would talk about the performers from all over the world. Their performances, exposes us to cultures we have never seen or even heard about before no matter which part of the world we come from. Locals and tourists alike were all in awe when i attended the La Compagnie Malabar which originated from France. All the performances were all very special in their own right and i would like to say that the Singapore Arts Festival is truly one of the more complete packages for art lovers out there.
Finally i will move on to the Technological benefits Singapore enjoys from the festival. There isn't much the technological sector benefits from the festival. There might be a exchange of architectual knowledge between local architects and foreign ones when they build the platforms some performances requires.
Here are some more pictures. Enjoy!
Bali Arts Festival
Singapore Arts Festival
