PUBLISHED September 10th, 2014 04:00 pm | UPDATED January 20th, 2016 02:23 pm
If you’re the sort to think art comes at a great price, well, Lit Up 2014 is going to prove you wrong. Organized by Word Forward (aka the folks behind Poetry Slam), the arts festival is back for its 6th edition at the end of September, and the visibly stronger regional flavour this year means it’s definitely gotten bigger and better!
Staying true to its multi-disciplinary roots, the theme for this year’s event is ‘Walk the Equator’, which invites featured artists and attendees to traverse genres and conceptual boundaries. With free events and nothing that costs over $25, Lit Up is one affordable art fest where you’ll be hard-pressed to decide what to catch. We’re here to help – behold our top picks of the Lit Up 2014:
Market of Experiences
Market of Experiences
Engaging event-goers with a variety of interactive activities, don’t miss the Market of Experiences popping up at The Aliwal Arts Centre Courtyard over the weekend. We’re looking to play Pop-Ping-Pong-Off – a game of table tennis where you score points for your side of a pop culture polarity of choice. For instance, if you choose Hipster, you’ll probably be facing off with a Hippie. Table tennis fun aside, there’s Tarot-inspired poetry, a story dispenser (one for 50 cents!), and of course, food.
Equate Series
Talks are usually not the most exciting things in the world, but we’re looking forward to Equate #3 An Afternoon with Arianna. The eponymous Arianna Pouzzouli is an international Poetry Slam regular, and she’ll be sharing her first poetry collection ‘Something for Everyone’. The two other Equate talks focus on 21st century literature and writing as migrants in Singapore, featuring speakers like Desmond Kon and Zafar Anjum. The best part? All talks are free, but registration is required so snag those seats, pronto.
The Improv Company
Comedy
Fans of long-running comedy show Whose Line is it Anyway?, you’re in for a treat. The Improv Company is back at Lit Up 2014 with It’s Hot in Here, a completely unscripted show that’ll be using audience suggestions as the main launching pad, so head down for an energetic performance that’ll keep you laughing all the way to the end. And if your inner improv theatre star is waiting to be unleashed, try your hand at creating collaborative stories off the top of your head at the Improv Company’s workshop, Improv for Everyone.
Puppetry
Once serving an important social function at community-scale gatherings, puppetry is unfortunately not as well preserved in Singapore as other forms of art. So kudos to the folks at Lit Up for featuring Terence Tan and Jodie Thiele’s GUEST as part of the lineup. With a mix of live puppetry, music, and real-life interviews with domestic helpers, construction workers, expats and locals, GUEST explores the themes of belonging and identity in Singapore.
The duo will also be conducting two different puppetry workshops. Create your own puppets and stories at Terence’s Puppets and Passages Workshop while Jodie’s GUEST – Art of the Puppeteer workshop will have you learning techniques of manipulation, construction and design used in the production.
Fungki Munkees
Zalora Nights
With each night featuring three bands and a spoken word troupe, Zalora Nights are set to end each day of the festival with a bang. Saturday night will see spoken word troupe Party Action People perform their TV-inspired work, Everybody Hertz, alongside 9-piece funk band Fungki Munkees, indie rock quartet The Sets, and pop-folk group Seyra. On Sunday night, five-women spoken word collective Sekaliwags will be presenting their thought-provoking, time travelling production, Xpowerment!. Bands Instigator Afrobeat Orchestra, The Good Life Project, and Monster Cat will be playing for your aural pleasure.
Lit Up is happening 26-28 September 2014 at Aliwal Arts Centre. For more information on programme lineup, see website; see here for tickets.