Orchard Road Christmas light-up returns this year with floral theme and giant outdoor projection
Adeline Tan
SINGAPORE - The organisers of the annual Christmas light-up in Orchard Road do not want the pandemic to take the shine off the iconic event, returning with a bigger and better edition amid a higher vaccination take-up in the country.
While there will be no street activities and performances like last year, this year's event will have a giant outdoor video projection cast on the facade of Mandarin Orchard Singapore, and resumption of popular recorded tunes of Christmas carols after a three-year hiatus, the Orchard Road Business Association (Orba) said on Tuesday (Oct 19).
Themed "Christmas in Bloom", this year's iteration will see the shopping street set aglow with about 68km of fairy lights and oversized floral decorations, with some parts dressed with bold neon lights, to give off a "mesmerising effect".
The theme this year is meant to symbolise a journey of hope and resilience, as businesses along Singapore's most popular shopping strip yearn for a return to normality.
Orba chairman Mark Shaw said that it has been a hard year for tourism and retail businesses with significant disruptions due to the pandemic.
"We hope that the aspects of the light-up will help us bring awareness to Orchard Road and help bring people down... I think when people come, they will still need to sort of go into malls to shop," he added.
Mr Shaw said the situation is different now, with Singapore's vaccination rate being much higher.
He said: "People are already better able to deal with Covid-19, and it is less dangerous. So we feel that the time is right to pivot towards being able to live with Covid-19 in a sort of more normal way."
Orba declined to reveal the cost of the 3.1km light-up that will kick off on Nov 13, with seven weeks of festivities till Jan 2.
The lights will be turned on from 6.30pm to midnight from Sundays to Thursdays, till 2am on Fridays and Saturdays, and till 6am on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve.
The 12m-tall main arch at the Scotts-Paterson road junction will be lined with colourful lights accentuated with red and rose gold poinsettias, a traditional Christmas flower that symbolises purity and mirth.
From the stretch starting at the Cairnhill-Orchard road junction to The Atrium @ Orchard, viewers can enjoy white Christmas roses perched on gold arches.
The red poinsettias will make their appearance again starting from the stretch near Tanglin Mall all the way to the Paterson Road junction.
The giant outdoor projection will be screened from Nov 1 to Jan 2, with a 10-minute 3D show from 8pm to 10.30pm daily.
By downloading mobile application PopAR and pointing it at the projection, viewers can enjoy augmented reality effects.
A virtual tour of the shopping street, which will start from Nov 19 through Jan 2, will offer 360-degree views and feature performances by local buskers.
From Nov 1, shoppers walking along the stretch between Ion Orchard and Ngee Ann City will hear recorded tunes from popular Christmas carols daily between 5pm and 10.30pm, extended to 12.30am on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve.
The Christmas light-up has always been iconic for the popular shopping street. In 2018, it attracted four million visitors.
Mr Shaw said this year's edition is unlikely to see similar numbers due to Covid-19 health regulations and people being more cautious.
He added: "But I think the point isn't really about a lot of people coming to Orchard Road. We want to keep businesses going, we want enough people to come down to Orchard Road and patronise our businesses here. We'd like tourists to remember there is a great Christmas light-up in Singapore."
Among other initiatives, Orba also said it is collaborating with e-commerce platform Lazada to create a first-ever Orchard Road dedicated campaign page, featuring vouchers from businesses such as malls and hotels.
The page will also run other Christmas sales such as Cyber Monday, with exclusive promotions for Mastercard users.
