The Singapore Arts Festival started in 1977 with the mission of celebrating the local art activities of Singapore’s multi cultural community. The festival is significant in the development of the artistic and cultural life of Singapore thus putting the city as one of Asia’s major cultural capitals today. Collaborating closely with locals and international artists, the festival has been successful in generating a growing public demand for arts. A long list of interesting and unique programmes are being carefully planned out to showcase these arts to the community. The Singapore Arts Festival is currently the largest art event in the country offering more than 400 activities and attracting up to 500.000 people with performances and events that inspires and captures the attention of the public.

1.1 Examples of events:
The Dream Engine (UK)

The Dream Engine was held at the Merlion Park showcasing a mesmerising solo dancer, suspended on what seems to be nothing but a column of light, twirling and dancing to the beat of the music. Accompanied by colourful dancing lights, the performance took place in a gigantic diamond like structure fully furnished and brightly lit with different set of lightings at different intervals.
The 12minute event which was being shown at 7pm, 8pm and 9pm respectively drew a great amount of spectators who were either passing by or were there to view the performance itself. The night atmosphere allows the lights to reflect and refract in crystalline formations thus creating ghostly images that mirror the hypnotic beauty of the dancer.

“What do you want to be, Strange.R?”
This project encourages the participation of the public. It is an art installation project that transforms an everyday object into something that seems to have obtained a life of its own. The project was started in Tokyo by interviewing residents at random from different cities. These residents were asked to pick a favourite object in their house. A major event happening in the particular city was then being picked out. The objects were then fused with the concept of the particular event in the city to give rise to a new object.
The art installation could be found outside Raffles City during the duration of the whole art festival. Interested and curious passersby would have the opportunity to ask questions on the information counter located beside the installation.

Flipside Performances at the esplanade
The esplanade has work together with The Singapore Arts Festival committee to hold a number of events and performances. A variety of paintings and sculptures are available both inside and around the esplanade.
A particular performance which I have experienced was the choir performance by the ITE College East which was in conjunction with the Singapore Arts Festival. The 45minute event took place over 3 days within the duration of the festivals itself. It attracted mainly family members and friends of the performers and also passersby.

2. Comparison Marketing Stratergy:

The Melbourne Art Festival is a nationally recognized event held each year on the fourth full weekend in April in historic downtown Melbourne, Florida. They are currently celebrating their 25th successive year in operation. They also did mention that admissions to the events are free.

Product:
A product is what the potential customers need, want, and will pay for. The product that both the festivals are offering is similar. The type of product they are selling here are both intangible and perishable. They are selling the fun experience to buyers who are interested in arts. Both the festivals have artistic both local and international.

Place:
The Singapore Arts Festival is held at many locations in the Singapore. You are able to experience these festivals in theatres, streets of public areas and even near your housing estate. Similarly to the Melbourne Arts Festival, the art experience are scattered all over the place. This is an important feature because, it will allow the public to gain access to experience these festivals at a more convenient pace.

Partnership:
The Singapore Arts Festival has a greater number of partnerships and sponsors when compared to the Melbourne Arts Festival. T The partners for the Singapore Arts Festivals includes tv stations such as channel 5 and OKTO, Shaw Foundation, coca-cola light, Singapore Tourism Board and the Tote Board. The partners for the Melbourne Arts Festival include Florida today, brighthouse network, WFIT 89.5fm and many more. Singapore Arts Festivals stands at a better position here as they are more readily funded by the different bodies.

Programming:
Planning an event or performances could be tedious task as the individual have to clearly consider his or her main objective to lure the target audience. The Singapore Arts Festival categorized the preferences of their target audiences at their home page into 6 different categories which are dance, music, theatre, fest connect, visual arts and outreach. Under each category are a many different performances that one can choose from. The Melbourne Arts Festival on is using a similar approach. They have a long list of different activities and performances to cater to different types of target audiences.

Packaging & Distribution:
The Singapore Arts Festival homepage has a section for the calendar of events which appeared very attractive to the users. It is an important feature of the event as it clearly shows the specific time and dates for the various programmes. Melbourne Arts Festival packages their festival through free entrance to the programmes. They do not have a definite packaging and distribution programme. They do however have a itinerary list on their website for users to gain more information about the festival.

Promotion:
The Singapore Arts Festival offers privilages to Art Fest Club members such as discounts in restaurants, hotels, malls and many more. They would also receive a further discounts for purchases of tickets. This encourages people to sign up for this particular membership. Melbourne Arts Festival, does not offer any attractive promotion. The only promotion that it could have offered could be the free admission to the festival.

Price:
The Singapore Arts Festival has different ticket prices for different programmes and performances. The prices may be range differently but in general, it is considered to be affordable for the public. The Melbourne Arts Festival however focuses on free admission for all. Their main motive for doing so could be to promote appreciation of the arts rather than to earn any revenue from the festival.

People:
The target audience for both festivals are for those who have an interest for arts. Volunteers have been recruited for both of the festivals to help run the events and programmes. Locals and international performances are being called upon to make the festival more interesting and meaningful.

3. Best Practices:
In my opinion, Singapore Arts Festival best practices would be the idea of scattering the different programmes around the island. This would enable interested parties to visit these various events at a more convenient pace rather than having to travel a distance to do so. They have adopted a smart concept which is to bring this festival to the people rather than to draw them to it.
The usage of promotional tools such as brochures, posters, media and even on the internet for example the facebook are some of the innovative stratergies to make themselves known to the public. In addition to that, they have started and ended the ceremony with great impact. The opening and closing ceremony was brilliantly done and has attracted a huge number of crowd.

4. Stakeholders:
The Singapore Arts Festival has a variety of stakeholders each holding a different set of roles. In relation with the event, the stakeholders can be categorized into the sponsors, co-workers, participants, spectators, host organization and the media.

Participants and Spectators are the visitors that come for the event.

The host organization or organizers for the event would be the National Arts Council (Singapore). They are the key people who set up the management and planned all the other details for the event.

Co-workers refer to volunteers and staff involved in making the event successful.
The media acts as a powerful promotional tool through advertising for the event. Some the advertisements for the Singapore Arts Festival were being carried out through Channel 5, OKTO, and many of their sponsors. Posters and brochures could be seen in selected buildings and even on road billboards and at outdoor places.

Spectators and Participants refer to visitors who come for the event for many different purposes.

There are many sponsors to cater to a huge event like this. They support the event through funding it and would expect acknowledgement in return. Some of the major sponsors are vivo city, Suntec Singapore, SMRT, PUB, Raffles City, Lee Foundation, WingTai Asia, Starhub Cable Vision and many others.

5. Main Purpose of The Event:
The main purpose of the Singapore Arts Festival is to promote and deliver arts from different parts of the world to the community through the works of local and international artists. It is also believed to have the intention of bringing people who shares the same passion for the arts and allowing them to enjoy the variety of performances and activities which are made available. It is also through this festival, local and international artists will me more recognized.

6. Tourism Benefits:
The tourism benefits for the Singapore Arts Festival can be categorised into political, economic and socio & cultural impacts. Through categorizing the impacts in such manner, the tourism benefits could be seen and analyze on a much clearer scale.

Political Benefits:
The event has the ability of attracting visitors from many different countries to Singapore. This would also mean that there will be need for a huge amount of labour to make this event a successful one thus creating employment opportunities for the locals. It also changes the stereotype view that many have on Singapore for lacking in terms of their culture and inevitably improves the profile of the city. This could lead to more benefits such as overseas investments in the country.

Economic:
As I have mentioned, The Singapore Arts Festival is capable of attracting a huge number of tourist to Singapore. These tourists would spend their money on tickets sales for the festival. Spending on other goods and services here is also very likely to happen. A further increase in revenue for the country might happen if they wish to extend their stay in Singapore. The event alone will also generate revenue by itself. There will be more jobs created for the locals to cater to response on the event. It can also provide host communities with a strong platform for showcasing their expertise, drawing potential investors and promoting new business opportunities.

Socio & Cultural:
Singapore is a country with people of many different races and religions. This puts a greater emphasis on the importance of positive socio-cultural impacts the event might have on the community. The difference in the work of art between two different countries will allow people to be exposed and appreciate the work from the other party thus bringing about interaction among the community. The performers from various countries will broaden people’s cultural horizon, exposing them to new and challenging people, customs or ideas. The event also welcomes community participation among the locals and this could be a very good way to showcase Singapore’s cultural practices to the others.

7. Conclusion:
In conclusion, The Singapore Arts Festival was a successful event and has acquired many positive outcomes for the community. It has been an educational experience for many and will still be one of those major events that need to be looked out for.

Bibliography:
http://www.melbournearts.org/