i Light Marina Bay, the annual sustainable light art festival, returns for its fifth edition from 3 to 26 March. This year, three festival hubs create a festive atmosphere for a sensory and interactive experience.
Visitors can enjoy 20 stunning artworks by local and international artists around the Marina Bay waterfront. This year’s festival also features a greater variety of community-centric activities that gives the public opportunities to participate in, and contribute to community causes.
Organised by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), the festival features three distinct festival hubs: Art-Zoo for imaginative play, The Fantastical World of eco.me for sustainability-themed activities, and GastroBeats for food and music. These three hubs are at The Promontory @ Marina Bay, The Float @ Marina Bay, and the Bayfront Event Space.
The first of the festival hubs, The Fantastical World of eco.me, was organised by The RICE Company Limited. In line with the theme of sustainability, this hub involved students and community institutions in the construction of furniture at the hub using 300 wooden pallets.
The Fantastical World of eco.me promoted sustainable living in Singapore with highlights such as a recycling and upcycling marketplace, a kinetic energy playground and an urban farming showcase.
Inspired by lessons taken from marine and plant life, this festival hub at The Promontory took place over two weekends from 3 to 12 March. It presented thematic activities ranging from immersive theatre performances to live music, workshops, and an arts and crafts fair.
At The Float @ Marina Bay, families can visit Art-Zoo, an inflatable playground in the setting of an imaginative zoological garden. And finally, Gastrobeats at the Bayfront Event Space offers plenty of food options and live music performances for visitors.
This year, the festival will see five light art installations designed by students from the National University of Singapore, Nanyang Polytechnic, Singapore University of Technology and Design, LASALLE College of the Arts, and Raffles College of Higher Education — the highest participation level from local educational institutions to date.
Students from LASALLE College of the Arts — which is participating for the first time — is presenting Relocating Locality, an art work in the form of a series of interlocking pavilions. Made of wood and bamboo, the exposed raw and natural materials contrast against the surrounding polished urban environment, juxtaposed against Singapore’s cityscape.
i Light Marina Bay is open from 3 to 26 March, 7.30pm to 11pm daily with an extension to 12 midnight on Fridays and Saturdays, around the Marina Bay waterfront promenade. Admission is free.
Do visit www.ilightmarinabay.sg for more information.