The Civic District’s about to get super happening for the last two weekends of October, thanks to the return of arts festival River Nights. Set to the theme of ‘Phantasmagoria’, this third edition offers up four nights featuring enchanting performances of traditional art forms with a modern twist.
One of the festival’s highlights is the Asian debut of the Umbrella Project, a collab between American dance company Pilobolus and Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Distributed Robotics Laboratory. It’s an interactive art and dance piece that will see 100 Singapore Polytechnic students light up the sky with a dazzling kaleidoscope of colour-changing umbrellas. Also look out for Soundscape: The River, a medley of instruments, vocals and dance that tells the story of a river with a partly improvised performance that spans three stages.
And in celebration of 50 years of diplomatic relations between Singapore and Japan, you’ll get to experience the theatrics of Yugen: The Hidden Beauty of Japan — it’s basically a combination of 3D projection with Japanese theatre form Noh.
Plus, Halloween fanatics won’t wanna miss the Asian Civilisations Museum’s signature ACM After Dark event, which will feature an East-meets-West, zombie-themed showcase called Horror Mash-Up. If you can make it past the creatures of the undead within the galleries, you’ll get to watch indoor screenings of Asian and Western frightening flicks, play dress up and get your face paint on.
River Nights is on Oct 21 & 22 and Oct 28 & 29, 7pm-11pm around the Civic District.
