Pedestrian Night on Orchard Road

Have you heard about the Pedestrian Nights on Orchard Road?
From 4 October to March 2015, a section of Orchard Road is turned into a temporary pedestrian street between Scotts Paterson Junction and Bideford Junction. This happens every first Saturday night of each month, from 6pm -11pm.

Known as Pedestrian Night on Orchard Road, this six-month initiative aims to inject street vibrancy into the area by creating an integrated community space. Every night has a theme. The first theme (october) was tennis.

The Pedestrian Night in november was themed around (mass) yoga.

This saturday will be the third night, this time focussed around Christmas. This is what you can expect: I heard about live performances by local artists, outdoor movie screenings, bouncy castles for children and photo opportunities with Christmas mascottes. So be sure to check it out for yourself!

I found no information about the program of the three Pedestrian Nights in Orchard after the one from tomorrow.
(There is hardly any information to be found online; clearly something to improve!)

Are the Pedestrian Nights a success?

I have visited the first two nights. Now I have to say upfront, that neither tennis nor yoga interest me the slightest bit. Right, glad we have that out of the way;-).

Having said that, let’s look at both nights.
Night nr. 1 was a hit in terms of the number of visitors. It definitely was a success amongst families with children.

There were mini-tennis courts, you could play solo-tennis in a sort of cage-net, there were photo-opportunities with XXL tennis rackets and more.

There also was a seating area (see first picture of this article), where all the seats were taken. People were looking around, enjoying the atmosphere, and playing with their smartphones and tablets.

The second night, where around 1.000 people would join in a mass-yoga event, we could not have a look at the beginning of the evening. We arrived at around 9.30 pm, only to find an almost deserted Orchard Road. A couple of lost souls were still showing some yoga moves and there was a DJ spinning tunes, gathering some people around his stage. Nice music and we danced for 20 minutes. But apart from that, it seemed pretty boring, to be honest. Too bad! What a lost opportunity! To have all that prime space available for hours and not use it to the max!

Will and should the Pedestrian Nights continue after March 2015?

I assume that that depends on wether this initiative does or does not have an impact on the malls around Orchard Road. Do they see more customers and sales yes or no? Because that’s what this was all about.
Personally I think it is a great initiative with lots of possibilities. If only it could be more entertaining, lively and exciting!

Some ideas:

• a night around social dance, with demos, lessons and free dancing. Divide the road in sections: salsa, tango, swing, line dance, and so on.
  Place chairs in between each section. Not only does this provide seats for on-lookers, but it also creates some space in between the sections, so that their music does not interfere with one another.
• movie night. Play 4 to 6 movies. Place two movie screens, one on each long end of the street. Play three different movies back to back on each of the screens.
• the arts. Place temporary ‘walls’ and invite street artists to paint on them (one rule: no tagging only, because that’s boring). Invite buskers to do their thing. Let artists sell their art (rule: prices must be between 1 and 100 SGD).
• disco. Turn the road and night into a mass dance event. Make two or three DJ booths and let them spin. Each should play a specific repertoire. 1. disco, soul, funk. 2. dance 3. pop-music?
• singapore50. Singapore celebrates it’s 50 years of independence in 2015. Make it a night all Singaporean! Icons of Singapore, history, shopping, arts, music.
• coffee and cake. make it a social evening. For people to mingle, network, socialize. Let local coffee/tea cafes and vendors set up stand there. And dessert vendors. Cakes, ice-cream, pancakes. There are other mobile food and beverage vendors in Singapore. Invite them too. Provide seats for 1.000 people. Make pamphlets with fun conversation starters and let volunteers hand them out amongst the audience during the evening. E.g.: “Talk to at least one new person tonight. Ask him or her what is his/hers biggest passion.” or “Turn around. Who is sitting behind you? Introduce yourself and share your (first) name and share what is your favorite cafe.”

Special tip for the organization: more marketing and promotion, please. Much, much more! Especially online. Or is it just me and are others able to find plenty of info?

Now it’s your turn!

• What do you think of this initiative?
• Have you been to any of the nights? Are you planning to?
• What do you think of my ideas?
• What would be your suggestions for upcoming Pedestrian Nights on Orchard Road?

Note: “Members of the public are welcomed to contribute suggestions for activities and events to [email protected] Please note that all event proposals are subject to joint evaluation by ORBA and STB. Event organisers should note that the application of relevant permits and licences from the relevant government agencies can take up to 3 months”. Maybe this is no longer possible, but I thought I’d mention it anyway.