Yesterday morning, before going festival-ing, we went for a walk around the local neighbourhood, which features the oldest public housing estate on the island. It's built in the Art Deco inspired Streamline Moderne style, and is covered by a heritage trail and comprehensive guide book/local history. The guide goes as far as covering the life histories of some of the stall holders in the recently modernised market.
The Kite Festival attracted thousands of families and the sponsors were handing out free kites, so it was difficult to walk anywhere without being tangled in kite strings. There were living statues and street entertainment, including one pair who had been flown in from the UK. We saw one half of them (the other half had literally fainted from the heat) and he was excellent, if a bit sweaty (a suit and tie is not the best costume for Singapore).
The Night Festival starts when it gets dark and features a lot of art and music, including some stunning projections of Cambodian temple images onto trees. Some streets are closed off and the crowds are marshalled across the ones that are still open by their version of the Specials, the Auxiliary Police. They are equipped with whistles, which they blow enthusiastically but seemingly at random, and batons which flash blue and red - ordinary security guards are also around but they only have flashing red batons and no whistles.
The Garden Festival was at the Gardens by the Bay - a massive garden development on reclaimed land which features two huge Eden-Project-like conservatories, both fully air-conditioned. The biggest covering 3 acres is 35 metres high and contains various Mediterranean climate exhibits from around the world. As today is a Sunday it also contained thousands of Singaporeans and tourists, most of whom were intent on photographing each other using the plants as a background. Louise took pictures of interesting plants, I concentrated on pictures of people taking pictures of people - particularly those using selfie sticks. The other conservatory covers only 2 acres, but is big enough to house a 35m high waterfall and a 42m mountain, which you go to the top of and then go on an aerial walkway. There is a warning it shouldn't be used by those with heart conditions or fear of heights. The theme is cloud forest, and it is certainly cool and wet, but also full of snappers.
The festival itself was mostly in air-conditioned marquees, including some full-sized gardens seemingly based on a night-time theme, which made it a bit difficult to see all the plants. However, the best in show was outside, and by a British designer. Unfortunately it was on two levels with most of the plants on the top, not easily visible from the ground.
Art Deco stylings:
One of the market stalls (not the one we got our food from):
Lots of kites:
Tree faces:
Like the Winter Garden in Sheffield, but a bit bigger:
Selfie stickery:
It's quite high:
In the night garden:
Best in Show (just after a bit of rain):
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