What to do with Kids at i Light Marina Bay Festival — Even in the daytime!

From a silent disco, to a larger-than-life inflatable zoo, to an eco-friendly kinetic energy playground, there’s much for kids to love about the upcoming i Light Marina Bay Festival that starts tomorrow

i Light Marina Bay 2017, Asia’s largest sustainable light art festival, is back for its 5^th edition this weekend, mama, taking place at Marina Bay waterfront promenade from 3rd to 26th March 2017. Besides a spectacular showcase of light art installations designed by international and local artists, you can look forward to lots of kid-friendly activities for the whole family – even kiddos who go to bed before it gets dark!

This year’s festival is all about emphasizing community, encouraging the public to participate in various events at the festival and also donate to meaningful community causes and movements.

Some notable family-friendly activities include The Art-Zoo, featuring a combination of an experiential playground and art installation set in a zoological garden at The Float @Marina Bay.

Art-Zoo creator and the Creative Director of local multi-disciplinary creative agency BLACK, Jackson Tan, says Art-Zoo’s aim is to “recreate fond childhood memories of visiting the Singapore Zoo with our families, by bringing the zoo into the city and assimilating it with the innovative concept of an art gallery.” Through these enjoyable and interactive installations, the idea is that young and old alike can learn to appreciate environmental sustainability.

At GastroBeats, an event taking place at the Bayfront Event Space, visitors can delight in gastronomic treats from food artisans such as Skewer Bar, Poké Theory, Starker and lots more. We think kids will particularly love the Silent Disco Series, a headphone party concept which has taken Singapore by storm since its launch last year.

Silent Disco partygoers will be given wireless noise-cancelling headphones, which are rechargeable and engine-saving, to wear. The impressive three-channel DJ party will spin, play and stream live music through their headphones. Look out for the special day-time Silent Disco Kids’ Edition with live-streamed music tailored for the much younger crowd, along with some classic retro hits mixed in to keep mums and dads grooving, too! Silent Disco Kids’ Edition is happening on 4-5, 10-12, and 18-19 March at 3:30pm. Click here to purchase tickets, mama!

The second festival hub, The Fantastical World of eco.me, is inspired by themes of light and nature, and features a myriad of sustainability-themed activities at The Promontory@ Marina Bay. The hub comes alive and is transformed into a captivating playscape set aglow by gigantic nature inspired light installations and invigorated by entertaining hands-on activities. It looks to be a truly enchanting experience for young visitors.

The Fantastical World of eco.me also showcases a recycling and upcycling marketplace, a kinetic energy playground (so cool!) and the OCBC Urban Garden supported and manned by volunteers in collaboration with students and teachers from Yu Neng Primary School. Here the public can connect and interact directly with green eco-warriors who advocate local produce as a sustainable food source.

Kids can also try a mass-composting activity to learn about what it takes to convert fruit peels, leftover vegetables and other simple foods into compost, which can in turn be used for urban gardening and farming from a state-of-the-art pellucid acrylic container filled with food waste contributed from the village.

Through fun and play, eco.me hopes to educate the public to better appreciate the environment, embrace lifelong learning and hopefully embark on their own personal sustainability journey.

Also on the docket for families, Adventure with Dad 2017 presents a rare opportunity for fathers and sons (aged 12-15 years) to bond. This unique event celebrates the kinship between fathers and sons through a specially customized urban camp with outdoor challenges and fun activities. The activities have been intentionally designed so as to create a deeper level of trust and communication between father and son. Are your guys up for the challenge, mama?

Meanwhile, A Day Out With Mum on 16-17 March allows families to show how much mamas mean to them with a wonderful picnic at The Promontory@ Marina Bay. Families can spend a leisurely afternoon savouring the experience which comes complete with a picnic basket and mat, plus a performance by Clement Chow. Participants can even make special song dedications to their mums throughout!

Let’s not forget that the festival is also about contributing and donating to special causes. You can treat disadvantage mums to a fabulous picnic simply by registering and purchasing picnic packages for them.

To further encourage the public to adopt sustainable habits, the festival will switch off the light art installations and join the rest of Singapore in the one-hour lights out event during Earth Hour on 25 March from 8.30pm to 9.30pm.

Festival- goers can also take part in other complimentary partner programmes, such as exchanging their incandescent light bulbs for energy-saving LED bulbs through Philips Lighting’s Gift of Light LED light bulb exchange programme, for example.

With the festival taking place over three weeks, you’ve got plenty of time to explore and discover something new with family and friends, mama. Sounds like a truly illuminating experience to us!

All the Details!
What: i light Marina Bay Festival
Where: Promenade @ Marina Bay, 2 Bayfront Avenue, Singapore 018972
When: 3 to 26 March, 2017; 7:30pm to 11pm daily (extends to 12midnight on Fridays and Saturdays)
How much: Free!

www.ilightmarinabay.sg