Now in its sixth edition, i Light Marina Bay 2018 is currently running until 1st April. It's technically also the last edition of i Light Marina Bay as the festival of lights will be renamed i Light Singapore from next year onwards to reflect its expansion into the Civic District. I took a quick walk last Friday night after work to soak in the festivities.
i Light Marina Bay begins (or ends, depending on where you come from) from the open area right outside Marina Bay Sands where you get to enjoy a magnificent view of the Central Business District at dusk.
As always, food and drinks are prominently featured as it's the main source of revenue for such festivals. Here, there's an al fresco pop-up bar which makes for a decent hangout on Friday night.
Menu choices are Western food such as fries, burgers, pizzas and pasta.
Moving on towards the Prudential Marina Bay Carnival, which is running concurrently with i Light, we see this alien-looking structure that looks straight out of War of the Worlds.
To light the structure up proper, you need to beat the drums.
Then there's this spiralling loop installation that lights up in cascading colours. Its sole purpose, of course, is to serve as a suitable backdrop for an Instastory.
Moving on, some display of flowers that was presumably under urgent maintenance.
Near the Red Dot Design Museum are where the pop-up stalls are located, selling the usual assortment of "artisanal" accessories that you would spot at any other pop-up festival these days.
And yes, LED balloons are still going strong as at March 2018.
A light installation along the promontory.
Another light installation that took considerable effort to construct; I noticed the area cordoned off one week before the festival just to get the set piece in order.
Towards the end of the Promontory area, there is a musical telephone phone booth which lights up according to how much noise you made.
The above was taken after a small boy screamed his lungs out.
After two weeks of refurbishment, what was previously part of the Marina Bay Carnival has now transformed into Gastrobeats. There's the usual assortment of food over there (hence the name) in addition to the few light installations situated there.
Of course, the "Star Flyer" is still around.
Walking towards the Customs House area, you see these…. psychedelic mushrooms?
A huge heart-shaped structure right outside One Fullerton. The above photo doesn't do it much justice; a video would have been much more appropriate here given that the lighting pulsates with accompanying acoustics, simulating a heart beating.
The Merlion itself has also been transformed into a light installation on its own, with the lighting effects courtesy of a projector located nearby. This installation is dynamic as well; the patterns are continuously changing, and there are sound effects to accompany the said installation too.
The Esplanade Bridge, meanwhile, is devoid of any art installations. But when you reach the end, you're greeted by this display of used plastics.
Of the lot, I thought this was the most fascinating installation. The installation is actually a maze that you're supposed to walk through, with the intent of highlighting the gargantuan amount of plastics we use these days such that one could get lost in a swath of plastic waste.
Onwards, outside the Esplanade, you see this structure that seems plucked right out of a book on architecture.
Meanwhile, closer to The Float@Marina Bay is this interactive pendulum swing, where, when you knock the first ball against the second ball, it triggers a 'wave' of lights.
The Float@Marina Bay itself is home to another concurrent event, Art-Zoo. You need to pay for the tickets to get in, so the next best thing I could do was to take photographs from opposite the floating platform.
Unlike what one would typically expect on a Friday night, the ticketed area was fairly sparse. Perhaps the crowds would only come in on the weekend itself at a more kid-friendly timing.
After checking out Art-Zoo, I walked back to the end of Esplanade Bridge and walked further down towards the Esplanade Park, where the remaining installations were located.
The Esplanade Park is probably a nice, reflective place to be on a Friday night if you want to escape the crowds. For one, you get a street busker playing Perfect on the piano. His voice, unfortunately, didn't match up to his piano chops. At all.
Without looking the description, my best guess of this installation is that it's representative of a lalang field.
Another structure at the Esplanade Park…
Near the Lim Bo Seng memorial lies this installation which lights up when you beat the drums. In the presence of multiple cameras, not many people were brave enough to become the centre of attention…
Lastly, some white cows…
And a shot of the Victoria Concert Hall on my way back to City Hall MRT.