Overview
The festival opening pays tribute to the performing heroes of our grandparents’ time with a weekend of traditional street theatre curated by three of our Cultural Medallion winners.
Life in Singapore was hard in the 1800s and entertainment was scarce. There were no shopping malls or even cinema or theatre. Street theatre became a popular form of entertainment with travelling troupes staging performances at various gathering points.
Take a walk down memory lane at Causeway Point and experience the kind of traditional entertainment your grandparents or in some cases, parents used to enjoy. Better yet, bring them along for an enjoyable weekend of reminiscence!
Programme highlights include rare and seldom-seen street theatre performances.
Not to miss also, is an exhibition on traditional street theatre featuring highlights and milestones of the cultural journeys and careers of Cultural Medallion recipients Joanna Wong, Som Said and Santha Bhaskar. And on 13 July, fans of Malay and Indian music should not miss two mini-concerts organised specially for them. Be entertained by Malay artiste Atan of the Flybaits with pop hits from the 1970s.
Indian music fans can also catch the popular old time television and radio recording artistes such as Abdul Rahman, Malar Vizhi, Mohan, Suriamurthi, and L Vijayadran and K N Music Combo in an exclusive half-hour gig bringing you the 1980s hits.