Construction and logistic staffs involved in the setting up of this year's Heritage Fest Hub at Suntec City's Tropical Atrium, had to forgo their lunch break in order to add their finishing touches to spruce up the festival hub in preparation for tomorrow's exhibition - 'Who's Your Hero?'.
Work commenced as early as 9:30 a.m to the already completed exhibition hub, which consists of various different colorful booths narrating Singapore's historical milestones in the form of captivating and exciting visuals accompanied by short text descriptions.
Hatch One's marketing and events manager Jessica, who oversees the morning's project since her arrival at 10:30 a.m, hardly had the time to sit and sip her cup of coffee.
"We've been very busy since this morning and I hope that by seven, the setting up of our booths will be completed." Said the greying woman, who also handed this reporter a copy of the colorfully illustrated events guidebook at the Heritage Fest Hub's entrance booth.
"Do come back tomorrow and join in the opening exhibition. There'll be lots of people here and you can also bring your camera, too."
During the next hour while workers and staffs were diligently tying up all loose ends, a cultural dance rehearsal went underway for students of Yishun Primary.
By 2: 15 p.m, work was finally completed, save for the scattered mess which needs to be tidied before dusk falls. One by one, manpower slowly cleared off the work-site in herds of fours for a short break before returning back half an hour later.
Termed 'Who's Your Hero?', the 16-day Heritage Fest event kicked off last Saturday at heartland mall Causeway Point with a variety of traditional and cultural activities both the young and old as a form of tribute to the performing heros of our forefathers' time.
Exhibition highlights then included in the significant career achievements of Singapore's Cultural Medallion recipients such as Joanna Wong, Som Said and Santha Bhaskar, who did our country proud in the international arena of their own performing art speciality.
The upcoming festival hub will also showcase the making of the Heros Patch - a giant patchwork quilt featuring the fabric patches created by various different primary school children - which will be up on display at the Kids' Zone.
Students are allowed to design their fabric patches based on the festival's theme of heros.
With such large-scale family friendly activities, the National Heritage Board (NHB) is expecting to draw some 10,000 shoppers to join in its fun-filled exhibited daily programs and activities at its festival hub.
The event is expected to end off on a high note on the 27th July with the Travellators's showcasing their musical talents in their exploration of experimental music which fuses together the sound of the traditional Javanese gamelan, laptop music and syth effects to create a new breed of musical tones.
Meanwhile, individuals who are keen to sign up for the various outreach activities; are interested in knowing more about Heritage Fest 2008 are advised to visit www.heritagefest.com.sg for more information.
This is the NHB's fifth consecutive year running Heritage Fest.
Written 15th July 2008
